The death toll from the devastating Almeria wildfire has risen to 13 after one of the injured victims died in hospital on Sunday.
According to respected regional newspaper El Correo, the victim was a 93-year-old woman who had been receiving treatment in the intensive care unit at Torrecardenas University Hospital in Almeria.
Health sources said her death was not caused by burn injuries, but by pre-existing medical conditions. However, she had been among the eight people hospitalised following the wildfire.
The four most seriously injured patients had previously been transferred to the specialist Burns Unit at Virgen del Rocio University Hospital in Sevilla.
The death comes after Andalucian president Juanma Moreno confirmed the wildfire had been stabilised, with the blaze having scorched around 7,000 hectares and forced the evacuation of approximately 1,600 people from villages and rural communities across the area.
Earlier on Sunday, emergency services also completed extensive searches of the devastated fire zone without finding any additional victims.
Around 100 personnel, supported by drones and specialist search dogs, combed burnt-out homes, dry riverbeds and other difficult-to-access locations.
Authorities are continuing to identify the victims through DNA analysis, with samples sent to the Guardia Civil’s Criminalistics Service in Madrid to be matched with relatives.
The latest death brings the provisional death toll from Andalucia’s deadliest wildfire in modern history to 13.
Read more Andalucia news at the Spanish Eye.
