Briton tells of surviving Spain wildfire in car as wife and friends died trying to walk to safety

The British man, whose wife, 12 friends and neighbors were feared dead in the forest fires in Spain, explained how he was separated from them as the flames were advancing towards his home.

70-year-old Malcolm Timbrell and his wife, 69-year-old Annette Kilgore, lived in the village of Bédar in the province of Almeria, which was engulfed in flames last Thursday evening and 13 people lost their lives.

The devastated survivor spoke to the BBC outside her collapsed hillside home.

“You could never imagine this could happen,” he said. “And when it happens and you’re the only survivor, you wonder, ‘What can I do?’ You will be faced with the situation.”

He and Annette found their property when they appeared on Channel 4’s A Place in the Sun.

“He was a very happy, outgoing person,” Malcolm said of his partner of 17 years. “We had a wonderful life together and now it’s over.”

Thursday’s wildfire is among the deadliest in Spanish history. It quickly spread, tearing apart Bédar and causing Malcolm, Annette and their friends to have to quickly escape.

As the flames approached their property on Thursday, aided by strong winds, the couple and their neighbors decided to try to escape by car.

However, Malcolm chose to return home for his cats Charlie and Lilly.

“If we had done the logical thing and gone the other way and let our cats die, we’d both be alive. But when you have animals, you don’t think like that.”

Malcolm said he tried to catch up with the group after securing both cats, but saw that they were now out of their vehicle.

“My wife and seven other friends and neighbors decided – even though I told them not to – that the only safe way was to get out in front of the firewall.

“Later I heard the wall of fire was moving at 20 kilometers per hour. They didn’t stand a chance.”

Finding himself all alone in this chaotic situation, Malcolm said he tried to take shelter in the now abandoned cars: “Four out of six cars burned instantly and as each one started to go away, I pulled one car back.

“As fate would have it, the last two cars survived, although they were burned very, very badly and the paint blistered and burned.

“And the last one I survived with a cat.”

The flames eventually passed and Malcolm was rescued by emergency workers.

But the bodies of eight people were later found on the road below the couple’s home.

There are still four large burn marks where the four vehicles were found burned.

Four more fire victims, found in a right-hand drive car, are thought to be British, local authorities said.

The identities of all those who died in the fire have not yet been determined, but Spanish authorities said that three Britons and one citizen each of France, Belgium and Spain were among the victims.

One of them was a 93-year-old woman, thought to be British, who died from her injuries in hospital on Sunday.

Many British expats in Bedar village criticized the lack of a mobile phone alarm, but Malcolm did not want to share the blame.

Local authorities “did not have time to bring seaplanes here before dark,” said the official, adding, “Helicopters could not take off due to the smoke.”

Malcolm believed that there could be no worse combination of high winds, dry land and rising temperatures.

“This is no one’s fault. No one is to blame for this.”

Malcolm says he has been overwhelmed by the support of friends of all nationalities.

He and Annette moved to Spain after sailing together for many years. They had each previously lost partners to terminal illnesses and shared a love of traveling and making new friends.

The couple hoped to spend their final years together in the peace of the Andalusian countryside.

“Even though I know a body was found while holding a cat, I only have a small spark of hope inside me. The hard, cold facts point to the bodies they found.”

Malcolm said the local police were also very helpful and kept him up to date on their work.

But he is afraid of what will happen in the coming days as the magnitude of his loss hits him.

“So right now we’re just waiting for the DNA to come out. And then I’ll probably disband.”

Additional reporting by Kostas Kallergis and Juan Dominguez.