12 People Lost Their Lives in the Deadly Forest Fire in Spain: Why Wasn't ES-Alert Sent?

At least 12 people lost their lives in the forest fire that occurred in the Los Gallardos area of the Almería province, affiliated with the Andalusia Autonomous Region of Spain, and was described as the first major disaster of the summer season. In the incident, where some died while trying to escape the flames, it was reported that 23 people are still missing and intensive rescue operations are ongoing in the area. According to the latest data announced by the authorities, it was learned that four people were also severely injured during the extinguishing and rescue operations. Footage and videos reflecting from the area reveal that thousands of people have been evacuated and hundreds of emergency personnel are battling the flames. Causing the highest loss of life in the history of Andalusia, this forest fire has turned more than 3,000 hectares to ashes due to extreme temperatures.

As the scale of the disaster continues to grow, the biggest question on the agenda of the public and politicians has been why the national ES-Alert emergency system, which sends alerts to citizens' phones, was not activated. The ES-Alert system is known as a warning mechanism proven to save lives, which can be used in various crisis moments, including extreme weather events, chemical accidents, and volcanic eruptions. First successfully implemented during the severe flood disaster in Cádiz in November 2024, the system had mostly been activated for extreme rainfall since then. However, the failure to use the system in this deadly forest fire forced authorities to explain their decisions in emergency management. Authorities felt the need to explain to the public the technical and operational reasons behind this omission.

The President of the Andalusian Regional Government (Junta) argued that they acted in accordance with the recommendations of emergency technicians and that not using the system was a safer option. The President stated that sending a uniform warning message would carry the risk of giving 'conflicting' instructions to the local population, emphasizing that while citizens in some areas needed to stay indoors, those in others needed to be evacuated immediately. Furthermore, it was expressed that even in areas that needed to be evacuated, a centralized message could cause massive confusion because the escape routes were entirely different from one another. It was also noted that the communication infrastructure in the area was damaged by the fire, three base stations were out of service, and there was already no cell phone signal in some places. The administration added that ES-Alert is more effective at targeting large cities or areas with clearly defined boundaries rather than very narrow areas.

Since electronic alerts could not be sent, emergency management had to resort to more traditional but risky methods. To warn the scattered residential areas of the region, Local Police, Guardia Civil, and officials from the Bédar Municipality went door-to-door to speak with citizens face-to-face. The Mayor of Bédar, Ángel Collado, admitted that the teams risked their lives to provide notification, but some citizens ignored the evacuation orders, seeing them merely as recommendations. Many foreign residents trapped in the ring of fire described their moments of terror with the feeling of being 'sandwiched' between two fronts. It was reported that the survival of many locals was ensured not by official warnings, but by word-of-mouth communication spreading among neighbors and the ringing of church bells.

The scale of the tragedy and the debates surrounding the system have also sparked a political crisis in Spain. While figures close to the government and the opposition criticized the regional government for the personnel shortage in the teams fighting the fire, statements made on social media by the Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, escalated the tension. Claims that the number of personnel intervening in the forest fire in June 2026 decreased by 96 compared to September 2025 dropped like a bombshell on the agenda. While Popular Party (PP) Secretary-General Miguel Tellado accused the government of being inadequate in crisis management, Minister Puente refuted these claims, arguing that the real responsibility for the disaster lay with the regional government, which cut personnel and failed to activate the ES-Alert system. Meanwhile, investigators are focusing on the suspicion that the starting point of the fire could be an abandoned and de-energized private power pole, which electricity companies Red Eléctrica and Endesa have blamed on each other.