3 hours ago
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When Danielle Gillam-Kirton’s parents, Pete and Fran Gillam, were killed in July’s Spanish wildfires, she felt her nightmare could get no worse. The much-loved couple had built their home in Bédar in Almería after retirement, becoming part of a tight-knit community. Fran, a former headteacher, loved to organise quiz nights to raise money for the local school and the couple enjoyed playing padel at a nearby sports club.
Spanish police told Gillam-Kirton that the vehicle in which her parents died had been “inspected meticulously” and no possessions had been found. But Gillam-Kirton, an assistant headteacher from Nottinghamshire, was sure her parents must have been wearing their wedding rings when they died.
She was invited to search the vehicle herself, which was parked in a police compound in Mojácar. “You won’t find anything,” she was told.
She describes crying out in shock when she opened the door of the burnt-out car. On the front seats were what appeared to be a human hip bone. “I honestly can’t describe what that felt like. I remember staring at what was in my hand, and the slow realisation of what I thought I was looking at hit me. I shouted out in shock,” she says.
She and her partner searched the car and found more bones, which appeared to be the remains of the couple. They also found her parents’ mobile phones, sets of keys, jewellery, money and other personal effects.
The Gillams were among 14 people killed in the fires, including Belgian, French, American and Spanish nationals. Some of the bereaved families are now searching for answers and claim the Bédar authorities have botched the investigation into their deaths.
There has already been a funeral for the Gillams. “It makes you wonder: who or what did we cremate?” Gillam-Kirton says. She is demanding answers from the Spanish government and asking the UK Foreign Office to hold the authorities to account.
The bones she found have been sent for DNA testing after weeks of delay from the Bédar local authority. Forensic scientists who have looked at pictures of the bones have told Gillam-Kirton they appear to be human.
“The whole sequence is incredibly difficult to understand. We were told there was nothing left, and yet when we were finally able to look ourselves, we found significant personal belongings and what appeared to be human remains,” she says.
“We were initially told it was probably animal remains.” She says she had to push the Spanish authorities to send them off for DNA testing. “The bones were big. I can’t see how a large animal like a cow would have climbed into the passenger seat of the vehicle during a fire.”
Gillam-Kirton says she helped another family who were told their loved ones died while attempting to escape the fires on foot and that their remains had been cleared by a forensic team. She arranged for a search party – including a police officer and one of the victim’s relatives – to travel to the hillside on which they died. There they found what appeared to be human bones lying in plain view along with various personal belongings.
“These were people who were caught in the same horrific fire as my mum and dad,” she says. “They lost their lives in terrifying circumstances and they deserved dignity and respect, in the way they were treated at the time and afterwards. And for us and the other families, those personal belongings aren’t just objects. They’re the last physical things connecting us to the people we have lost.”
Gillam-Kirton has previously criticised the Spanish authorities for failing to alert her parents to the danger of the fire in good time. Though the fire alert came at 4.30pm, the evacuation order did not come for another three hours and was delivered by a lone police officer, who was “frantically driving from house to house”. Thirteen residents from the Gillams’ village died.
Gillam-Kirton says she wants the UK government to “keep pressing the Spanish authorities for proper answers”. She adds: “Eight British people died in this fire, including my mum and dad, so I think it is really important that the UK government continues to take an interest in what happened. After all, we are talking about the treatment of British nationals – the deceased and the living.”
She and the other families are asking the Spanish authorities for “a proper, thorough and transparent investigation … and I mean the whole thing, not just what caused the fire, but what happened during the emergency response, what warnings were given, when they were given, who received them, what evacuation arrangements were in place and what happened to the victims afterwards”.
Initially, the Spanish authorities blamed the victims for not understanding or following the evacuation instructions. However, it later emerged that no such instructions were given.
“I think that’s one of the things we’ve found hardest,” Gillam-Kirton says of the police response. “At the beginning, there seemed to be a lot of emphasis on the idea that the victims had ignored instructions or hadn’t evacuated when they were told to. And that was incredibly painful for us. And now, months later, we’re still asking basic questions.”
She adds: “That, along with what appears to us to have been a lack of proper search-and-preserve procedures at the scene, has left us feeling that there has been a real lack of empathy towards the victims and their families.”
The families hope that if there is a proper investigation into the deaths of their relatives and the behaviour of the authorities afterwards, others will not have to go through the unbearable situation they have had to face.
“Wildfires are becoming more frequent and more severe, and communities are going to face these situations again,” Gillam-Kirton says. “There will be another fire somewhere, and there will be other people who need to be evacuated.
“If you don’t properly investigate something, you can’t learn from it. We don’t want Mum and Dad to simply become two names in a list of people who died in a wildfire. We want to understand what happened to them, and if something went wrong, we want the lessons to be learned.”
The Foreign Office said that any investigations were the responsibility of the Spanish authorities. A spokesperson said: “We are supporting the family of a British couple who died in Spain, and our thoughts are with those affected by the devastating wildfires.”
The Bédar local government has been contacted for comment.
