Juanma Moreno highlights the work to prevent fire reactivations in Los Gallardos: victim identification advances

Extinction efforts in the Los Gallardos forest fire, Almería, have focused this Tuesday on surveillance and cooling of the affected terrain to prevent new outbreaks. Simultaneously, authorities have continued to advance in the identification of the deceased victims left by the tragedy.

The president of the Junta de Andalucía, Juanma Moreno, has indicated that the personnel deployed in the area continue to act on the charred perimeter and supervise the evolution of the terrain to ensure that "no type of re-outbreak" of the fire occurs. During an event held in Cártama, Málaga, on the occasion of the start of works on a new section of highway, Moreno also indicated that actions are already being studied to recover part of the areas damaged by the fire.

The Andalusian leader recalled that the flames have devastated around 7,000 hectares and have left "a deep mark" both on the natural environment and among the affected residents. For this reason, he has once again conveyed "a huge hug" to all the people who have suffered the consequences of the catastrophe.

He also highlighted that the fire, which he described as "tragic", was brought under control thanks to a "titanic effort" made by emergency teams, with a special mention to the Infoca Plan and the Military Emergency Unit (UME). On the other hand, the Integrated Data Center (CID) has reported the forensic identification of three new deceased victims, which raises to nine the number of fatalities whose identity has been confirmed through genetic tests.

The latest identifications correspond to a married couple of Belgian nationality and a woman from the United Kingdom, as detailed by the organization in a statement. So far, the judicially verified identities correspond to four men and five women. Of these, eight are foreign citizens and one is of Spanish nationality, all of whom are adults.

Authorities have specified that three of the thirteen deceased victims registered as a result of the fire are still pending formal identification. This balance is joined by a British citizen who died after being transferred to the Torrecárdenas University Hospital in Almería and whose identification did not require the forensic intervention of the CID.