Firefighters fought against a large wildfire that swept through a nature reserve in eastern Belgium and another on a Greek island close to Athens, resulting in two fatalities on Sunday amid hot and arid weather conditions that fueled fires across various parts of Europe.
The wildfire in eastern Belgium consumed approximately 30 square kilometers in the High Fens (Hautes Fagnes), a significant nature reserve, marking one of the worst wildfires in recent memory for the country.
Around 600 residents in the neighboring towns of Waimes and Bütgenbach, in Liège province near the German border, were instructed to evacuate on Saturday as winds changed direction and smoke engulfed the region. Tourists were also advised to leave, with a nearby gymnasium serving as an evacuation center.
Hervé Jamar, the provincial governor of Liège, disclosed on Sunday that over 250 emergency personnel were deployed, including more than 100 firefighters from Belgium and Germany, in addition to police, military personnel, and civil protection teams. Firefighting helicopters from Belgium’s federal police and the Netherlands were also involved in the firefighting efforts.
In Greece, the coast guard confirmed the deaths of an elderly couple outside their home on the island of Salamina, located west of Athens, close to where the fire originated. Over 500 individuals were evacuated from the island. The blaze erupted during the peak summer weekend around the Aug. 15 Assumption holiday, a time when many Athenians visit nearby islands such as Salamina, which is easily accessible from the capital’s main port of Piraeus.
Reports indicated damage to houses and five individuals being transported to a health clinic due to the fire. On the island, approximately 192 firefighters, 14 aircraft and helicopters, volunteer teams, and municipal water tankers were mobilized to combat the blazes. The coast guard and firefighting vessels were dispatched to the island, with arrangements made for potential sea evacuations from coastal areas under threat.
Salamina was under a severe wildfire risk warning on Sunday, with the cause of the fires not yet determined.
The ongoing wildfire in Belgium has surpassed a 2011 fire that ravaged nearly 14 square kilometers in the same vicinity and previously held the record as the country’s largest wildfire, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System. Nicolas Yernaux, a spokesperson for the Public Service of Wallonia, emphasized that conditions were notably worse this time due to extremely dry soil.
René Dahmen, chief engineer at the Department of Nature and Forests, pointed out that the fire was spreading on Sunday in a challenging area for firefighting crews to access. Efforts were focused on preventing the fire from advancing toward a municipal forest on the eastern flank.
Interior Minister Bernard Quintin confirmed that firefighters successfully prevented the fire from spreading westward toward the German town of Monschau. Authorities in Germany cautioned that the fire was approximately 1.5 kilometers away from the border. Farmers from both Belgium and Germany assisted by filling tanker trucks with water from a nearby lake to support firefighting operations.
Belgium activated the European Union’s civil protection mechanism to receive aid from other countries, with Sweden sending two water-bombing aircraft and three helicopters, including two from the Netherlands and one from the Czech Republic, being deployed. The fires in the High Fens region have been exacerbated by weeks of unusually hot and dry weather, complicating containment efforts due to the area’s combination of heathland and peat bogs.
Belgium experienced another period of intense heat with temperatures peaking around 37 degrees Celsius in some parts of the country on Friday.
In France, firefighters managed a wildfire in a pine forest in the Landes region without major flare-ups overnight, with an estimated 17 square kilometers burned and around 650 evacuees. This marked the third significant wildfire in the vast pine forests of southwestern France this summer.
Emergency crews in the United Kingdom battled 14 wildfires in South Wales with military support, as authorities warned of continued high wildfire risk despite the easing heat wave. In the West Midlands of central England, more than a dozen homes were destroyed by fires during the hottest day of the year when temperatures reached 38.1 degrees Celsius.
Firefighters in Germany made significant headway against a wildfire in the Hürtgen Forest, enabling around 2,000 evacuated residents of Gey to return home as of Saturday, with no active flames reported on Sunday and containment measures established to prevent further spread.