Firefighters engaged in a fierce battle against a large wildfire that swept through a nature reserve in eastern Belgium and another one on a Greek island near Athens, resulting in two fatalities on Sunday as dry and hot weather conditions exacerbated fires across various parts of Europe.
In eastern Belgium, a wildfire ravaged approximately 30 square kilometers in the High Fens (Hautes Fagnes), marking one of the worst wildfires the country has faced in recent times. Around 600 residents in the nearby municipalities of Waimes and Bütgenbach in Liège province, near the German border, were instructed to evacuate on Saturday due to changing winds and spreading smoke. Authorities recommended tourists to leave the area, while a nearby gymnasium was prepared to accommodate evacuees.
Hervé Jamar, the provincial governor of Liège, disclosed in a statement on Sunday that more than 250 emergency responders were deployed, including over 100 firefighters from Belgium and Germany, alongside police, military personnel, and civil protection teams. Firefighting helicopters from Belgium’s federal police and the Netherlands also contributed to the firefighting efforts.
In Greece, the coast guard reported that an elderly couple perished outside their residence on the island of Salamina, situated west of Athens, close to where the fire originated. Over 500 individuals were evacuated from the island. The fire broke out during Greece’s peak summer holiday weekend around the Aug. 15 Assumption holiday, drawing many Athenians to nearby islands like Salamina, easily accessible from Piraeus, the capital’s main port.
Approximately 192 firefighters, 14 aircraft and helicopters, volunteer squads, and municipal water tankers were mobilized to contain the blazes. The coast guard and firefighting vessels were dispatched to the island, with arrangements made for potential sea evacuations from threatened coastal regions. Salamina was under a high wildfire risk alert on Sunday, with the cause of the fires yet to be determined.
The ongoing wildfire in Belgium has surpassed a 2011 fire that consumed nearly 14 square kilometers in the same area, previously the country’s most extensive wildfire on record, as per data from the European Forest Fire Information System. Nicolas Yernaux, a spokesperson for the Public Service of Wallonia, noted that the current conditions were significantly more severe due to extremely dry soil.
René Dahmen, the chief engineer at the Department of Nature and Forests, mentioned that the fire was still spreading on Sunday in a challenging-to-access area for firefighting crews. Interior Minister Bernard Quintin confirmed that firefighters successfully prevented the fire from spreading towards the west and the German town of Monschau.
Belgium activated the European Union’s civil protection mechanism to receive aid from other nations. Hadja Lahbib, the EU’s crisis management commissioner, emphasized that Belgium was not facing the crisis alone, with Sweden dispatching two water-bombing aircraft and three helicopters (two from the Netherlands and one from the Czech Republic) also joining the firefighting efforts.
The recent wildfire outbreaks in Europe follow weeks of unusually high temperatures and drought conditions, complicating firefighting operations in areas like the High Fens. Belgium experienced another wave of intense heat with temperatures reaching approximately 37°C in some regions on Friday.
In France, firefighters managed a wildfire in a pine forest in the Landes region without significant flare-ups overnight. Authorities estimated that about 17 square kilometers had burned, leading to the evacuation of approximately 650 individuals. This was the third significant wildfire in the vast pine forests of southwestern France this summer.
Emergency crews in the United Kingdom were combating 14 wildfires in South Wales with military support, highlighting the persistent high risk of wildfires despite the easing heat wave. In Germany, firefighters made notable progress against a wildfire in the Hürtgen Forest, allowing around 2,000 evacuated residents of Gey to return home as containment efforts continued successfully.
