TERRADES, Spain – As a wildfire closed in on them, five members of a vacationing French family abandoned their car and stumbled through thick smoke down a steep hillside in a desperate bid to reach the waters of the Mediterranean. Instead of a beach, they found themselves at the edge of a cliff with no choice but to jump or try to climb down. Two plummeted to their deaths.

The deaths of the father and daughter off the 65-foot-high cliff were among the most tragic tales from Spain as it battles blazes during one of its driest summers in decades. The fire involved was likely sparked by someone throwing a lit cigarette out of a car along a small road inundated by vehicles heading to France, police said.

The deaths occurred Sunday night in Portbou, a Spanish town just three miles from the French border. Because wildfires elsewhere had forced the closure of the main highway linking Spain to France, traffic was diverted to the smaller road via Portbou.