A British man has said he will ‘fall apart’ once DNA tests confirm his wife is among the 13 killed in the Almeria wildfire.

Malcolm Timbrell, 70, survived last Thursday’s inferno in Bedar, while his wife of 17 years, Annette Kilgore, 69, is believed to be among the victims.

Speaking to the BBC outside the ruins of their hillside home, Malcolm described the overwhelming grief of being the sole survivor.

‘You’d never imagine it could happen,’ he said. ‘And when it does, and you’re the only survivor, then you’re left in a situation of, ‘What can I do?”

The couple had found their dream home in Andalucia after appearing on Channel 4’s A Place in the Sun, where they began a new chapter following the deaths of their previous partners from terminal illnesses.

‘She was such a happy, outgoing person,’ Malcolm said. ‘We have had an amazing life together – and now it’s stopped.’

A split-second decision

As flames, driven by fierce winds, raced towards their home, Malcolm, Annette and several neighbours decided to flee by car.

But Malcolm made the fateful decision to return home to rescue their two cats, Charlie and Lilly.

‘If we’d have done the sensible thing and gone the other way and let our cats die, we both would be alive,’ he said. ‘But when you’ve got animals, you don’t think like that.’

After securing the cats, Malcolm tried to catch up with the rest of the group but discovered they had abandoned their vehicles.

‘My wife and our other seven friends and neighbours – against me screaming at them not to – decided the only safe way was to walk out in front of the firewall.

‘I’ve subsequently heard that that firewall was moving at 20km/hr, plus. They had no chance.’

Surviving inside a burning car

Finding himself alone, Malcolm sought shelter inside the abandoned vehicles as the flames closed in.

‘Of the six cars, four of them instantly combusted and as each one started to go, I moved back one car,’ he recalled.

‘For some reason of fate, the last two cars, although very, very badly singed and paint bubbled and burnt, survived. And I survived inside the last one with a cat.’

Emergency crews eventually rescued him after the fire front had passed.

The bodies of eight people were later found on a path below the couple’s home. Four burned-out vehicles remain at the scene, while authorities believe four additional victims found inside a right-hand drive vehicle were British nationals.

So far, Spanish authorities have confirmed that the victims include at least three Britons, alongside citizens of Belgium, France and Spain.

A 93-year-old British woman also died in hospital from injuries sustained in the fire.

‘Nobody can be blamed’

The tragedy has prompted criticism from some British expats over the apparent lack of an emergency mobile phone alert before the wildfire engulfed Bedar.

However, Malcolm refused to blame the authorities.

‘They didn’t have time to get the seaplanes here before dark,’ he said, adding that helicopters were unable to fly because of the thick smoke.

With powerful winds, tinder-dry vegetation and soaring temperatures, he believes conditions created the perfect storm.

‘It’s nobody’s fault. Nobody can be blamed for this.’

He added: ‘There’s just that little spark of hope, even though I know a body has been found clutching a cat. Hard cold facts are pointing to the bodies they’ve found.

‘We are just waiting now for DNA clarification. And after that, I will probably just fall apart.’

The Almeria wildfire, which claimed 13 lives, is the deadliest forest fire in Spain in decades.

Read more Andalucia news at the Spanish Eye.