Firefighters fought against a large wildfire that burned a nature reserve in eastern Belgium and another on a Greek island near Athens, where two individuals lost their lives on Sunday due to hot and dry weather conditions escalating fires across parts of Europe.
The blaze in eastern Belgium charred approximately 30 square kilometers in the High Fens (Hautes Fagnes), a significant nature reserve, marking one of the worst wildfires in recent history in the country.
Around 600 residents in the neighboring towns of Waimes and Bütgenbach, located in Liège province near the German border, were instructed to evacuate on Saturday as winds changed direction and smoke enveloped the area. Tourists were also advised to depart, with a nearby gymnasium serving as a shelter for evacuees.
Hervé Jamar, the provincial governor of Liège, mentioned in a statement on Sunday that more than 250 emergency personnel, including over 100 Belgian and German firefighters, police, military officers, and civil protection staff, were deployed to combat the inferno. Firefighting helicopters operated by Belgium’s federal police and the Netherlands also contributed to the efforts.
In Greece, the coast guard reported that an elderly couple perished outside their home on the island of Salamina, located west of Athens, close to where the fire originated. Over 500 individuals were rescued from the island. The fire erupted during Greece’s peak summer holiday weekend around the Aug. 15 Assumption holiday when many Athenians visit nearby islands like Salamina, easily accessible from the capital’s main port of Piraeus.
Multiple houses were damaged, and five people required medical attention at a health clinic following the incident.
Nearly 192 firefighters, 14 aircraft and helicopters, volunteer crews, and municipal water tankers were deployed to contain the blazes. Coast guard and firefighting vessels were dispatched to the island, with contingency plans in place for potential sea evacuations from threatened coastal regions.
Salamina was under a high wildfire risk alert on Sunday, with the cause of the fires remaining unknown.
The current wildfire scorching Belgium has surpassed a 2011 fire that ravaged nearly 14 square kilometers in the same region, previously the country’s largest recorded wildfire, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System.
Nicolas Yernaux, a spokesperson for the Public Service of Wallonia, noted that conditions were considerably worse this time due to extremely dry soil. René Dahmen, chief engineer at the Department of Nature and Forests, mentioned that the fire was still spreading on Sunday in an area challenging for the crews to access, with efforts focused on preventing the fire from advancing toward a municipal forest.
Interior Minister Bernard Quintin stated on a social media platform that firefighters successfully prevented the blaze from spreading towards the west and the German town of Monschau. German authorities warned on Sunday that the fire was only about 1.5 kilometers away from the border.
Belgium activated the European Union’s civil protection mechanism to receive aid from other countries in combating the wildfires. Sweden dispatched two water-bombing aircraft, while two helicopters from the Netherlands and one from the Czech Republic were also dispatched.
The fires come after weeks of unusually hot and dry weather, with the High Fens’ landscape comprising heathland and peat bogs complicating firefighting efforts.
In France, firefighters managing a wildfire in a pine forest in the Landes region faced no significant flare-ups overnight, with authorities estimating the burnt area at 17 square kilometers and evacuating about 650 people from their homes. This marked the third major wildfire in the vast pine forests of southwestern France this summer, following two others in late July.
Across the channel in the United Kingdom, emergency crews tackled 14 wildfires in South Wales with military support. Although the heat wave is subsiding, drought conditions still pose a high risk of wildfires.
In Germany, firefighters made substantial progress against a wildfire in the Hürtgen Forest, enabling around 2,000 evacuated residents of Gey to return home on Saturday. Officials confirmed on Sunday that no active flames were present, with crews establishing a cleared buffer around the affected area to prevent the fire’s spread.