Óscar Puente explodes against Tellado and Cuca Gamarra for politicizing the Almería fire and accuses the PP of "disastrous management"

The Los Gallardos fire was still active, with a provisional toll of 12 people dead, eight injured, and another 23 still unaccounted for, when Miguel Tellado brought the tragedy into the realm of political confrontation against Pedro Sánchez's government.

The general secretary of the Partido Popular took advantage of the closing of a summer course by the Reformismo 21 foundation to assert that Spain needs "better public services" to prevent and confront emergencies like the one experienced in Almería. He then went further and maintained that the country urgently requires "a central government focused solely and exclusively on management."

"Today, unfortunately, we do not have it," said Tellado, who presented a future Executive of Alberto Núñez Feijóo as the alternative capable of providing "more means, better resources" and greater collaboration between administrations. His words came while the central government kept mobilized personnel from the Military Emergency Unit, aerial resources from the Ministry for Ecological Transition, agents from the Civil Guard, and personnel from Civil Protection to support the operation directed by the Junta de Andalucía.

Puente accuses Tellado of blaming Moncloa

Óscar Puente has reacted harshly to the message from the PP's number two. The Minister of Transport, sharing the information about Tellado's statements, has accused him of trying to hold the Government of Spain responsible for both the fire and its consequences.

“But is this piece of scoundrel blaming the Government of Spain for the Almería fire and its consequences?” Puente wrote. The minister added that the prevention and extinction of forest fires is the responsibility of the autonomous administration and reproached the Junta for not having sent an ES-Alert message to the affected population.

Puente has also accused the Andalusian Executive of having cut fire-fighting personnel. The general figures offered by the Junta itself indicate, however, that the Infoca Plan for 2026 has 271.6 million euros and more than 5,000 professionals. Unions such as CCOO, UGT, and CSIF have indeed demanded that preventive policies be reviewed and that an investigation be conducted into what could have failed during an emergency that advanced with enormous speed through an area of scattered housing and difficult access.

Gamarra enters the crossfire and Puente responds again

Cuca Gamarra joined the confrontation hours later. The popular leader shared a previous message from Puente in which the minister ironized about the intention of some PP leaders to carry Feijóo “under a canopy, like the Caudillo.”

“A terrible fire that has already left dead and several missing, and a minister insulting the opposition. Enough is enough,” Gamarra wrote, linking that comment to the emergency that was hitting Almería.

Puente's original message referred to the internal situation of the PP and had been published independently of the fire. The minister has therefore responded that his previous words had no relation to the tragedy and returned the accusations to the popular party.

“Scoundrels. The fire and its consequences have nothing to do with my tweet and everything to do with your disastrous management,” Puente replied.

The Junta defends the decision to dispense with ES-Alert

The lack of a mass alert to mobile phones has become the focus of the first questions about emergency management. The vice president of the Junta and Andalusian head of Emergencies, Antonio Sanz, explained that technicians ruled out activating the ES-Alert system because the antenna signal would have reached a much larger area than the affected one.

In some areas, evacuation was ordered, and in others, confinement was recommended. According to Sanz, sending general instructions to the entire region could cause confusion, mobilize people who should remain at home, and lead them to roads or paths threatened by the flames. The scarce telephone coverage in several rural areas would also have limited the usefulness of the alert.

The Board maintains that the mayors and emergency services personally warned the inhabitants of the threatened areas. Some of the victims were trapped after leaving their homes at the last minute and taking different paths from those indicated for evacuation. The fire spread, driven by strong gusts of wind, dry vegetation, and an orography that made it difficult for ground teams to enter.

The Andalusian Government maintains emergency level 2 activated and has decreed three days of official mourning. The Civil Guard continues to investigate the fall of a power line as a possible origin of the fire and keeps the Garrucha post open to collect complaints from relatives, obtain DNA samples, and locate people whose whereabouts remained unconfirmed this Friday afternoon.