British Families Who Lost Loved Ones in Spain's Bedar Wildfire Demand to Know Why No Alert Was Sent and Why an Inquiry Was Blocked

Families of British nationals killed in the wildfire that tore through the hillside village of Bedar, in the province of Almeria in south-eastern Spain, on 9 July are demanding a public inquiry into the authorities' actions. Fifteen people died in the fire, nine of them British nationals.

Fourteen of the 15 who died were foreign nationals: nine British citizens, three Belgian, one French and one American. The other victim was Spanish. The death toll in Bedar was the highest from any single fire in Spain during the summer of 2026, and one of the largest in the country's history.

The governing People's Party (PP) and the far-right Vox in the Andalusian parliament rejected a request for a commission of inquiry made by the opposition Socialist party, to which Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez belongs. The PP and Vox argued that an ongoing criminal investigation would provide the necessary answers. The Andalusian government, the PP and Vox have been approached for comment.

The families say there must be a public and transparent probe. Duncan Chard, who lost his father Michael and his father's partner Christine, said it was outrageous and an injustice, that family members were disgusted, and that it was an insult.

One of the families' central criticisms is the decision not to send an emergency alert to mobile phones as the flames closed in. Duncan Chard said that if the evacuation warning had come through in time, his father would still be alive, and he blamed failures by officials on the day for a number of the deaths.

Michael Chard built his house in Bedar from scratch and called it Casa Micas; his son said it was his place in the sun, his little paradise. On the morning of the fire, Christine had met friends and was due to go to the hairdresser. Duncan said his father, who had two artificial knees and walked with a stick, left the house with Christine as soon as they saw the flames. They left their phones and passports behind and tried to escape by car, but the road was blocked, which he called the action of a brave person fighting to the end.

Andalusia's emergencies chief, Antonio Sanz, said the region decided not to use the system that sends emergency alerts to mobile phones because it could not be tailored to specific communities. Officials said some residents needed to evacuate while others were safer staying in their homes, and argued an alert could have caused panic and traffic jams. Duncan Chard's response was to demand that the alert be issued, bells rung, police sent out with horns, and door-to-door warnings given.

Belgian virologist Thomas-Wolf Verdonckt, whose father Stanislas, 63, died, was on the phone to him as the flames approached. He said the victims never received advice on what they should do, and certainly not warnings that they were in danger, and that the authorities' claim that everyone in the area was given adequate warning was not true. The only contact the government managed, he said, was a couple of minutes before the flames engulfed everyone, when one police car drove by with its sirens on, with no talking and no messaging.

Bedar's emergency plan was last approved in 2019, and regional officials say it was in the process of being updated. The municipality is classified by the Andalusian government as being at risk from wildfires. In the days after the fire, Sanz faced a backlash for appearing to blame the victims, saying some people who decided to leave at the last minute took the wrong path.

Danni Gillam-Kirton, an assistant headteacher from Nottinghamshire, lost her parents Pete and Fran in the fire. They had lived in Bedar since 2018, and Fran, a former headteacher, ran a quiz night that raised money for the local school and church. Danni said her mother texted at about 19:00 to say they had packed in case they had to leave. She said they were waiting for instructions, and those instructions did not come. Her parents died on the part of Bedar known as English Hill.

Gillam-Kirton said her grief had been made worse by the way the Spanish authorities behaved afterwards. Local police had told the family Pete and Fran's car had been meticulously searched by forensic specialists and that she would find nothing. But in August, a month afterwards, she and her husband found what appeared to be human bones in the burnt-out car in which her father died; she said she recognised part of a pelvis or hip joint. Within minutes they also found her parents' mobile phones, jewellery, house keys and money, although police had earlier told the family no personal belongings had survived. Spain's Guardia Civil police have been approached for comment.

The fragments were eventually sent to Madrid for testing. The family says police have now told them no DNA was recovered and that the bones were those of an animal. But Gillam-Kirton said experts, including a forensic anthropologist who worked on the Grenfell Tower fire investigation, believe the fragments were human, and that they still do not know who or what they are. Her complaint to the Guardia Civil was answered, she said, only by saying the matter had been passed to the courts, with condolences offered for the death of her 'relative' in the singular, although she had lost both parents. She said it felt as if the authorities hoped grief or financial exhaustion would make the families give up, and that above all she wanted someone to acknowledge what went wrong, which no one seemed willing to do.

The cause of the disaster, also known as the Los Gallardos fire after the neighbouring town where it started, is the subject of a criminal investigation. In July, the Guardia Civil said it was believed to have been started by a fallen power line, but that explanation has been called into question. The Andalusian government refused a request from Socialist MPs for its official reports on the fire, in a letter signed by Sanz in September saying the documents could not be released because the criminal investigation is under a court order keeping the case file confidential. Gillam-Kirton said the criminal case is focused on how the fire started and will not necessarily examine the emergency response unless families pay lawyers to put that evidence before the judge, and asked how anyone could have faith in measures to mitigate future disasters without fully knowing what happened the first time.

Families in the UK, Belgium and Spain have set up various support groups and a website called helpbedar.com. They have launched an appeal to pay for legal action, aiming to raise 100,000 euros (83,000 pounds). Fundraising events are being held in both Spain and the UK, and so far about 11,000 euros has been collected. Duncan Chard said that is why a public inquiry is needed, because the public need answers.