Firefighters grappled with a massive wildfire that ravaged a nature reserve in eastern Belgium and another on a Greek island near Athens, resulting in two fatalities on Sunday due to hot and dry conditions fueling fires across various parts of Europe.
In eastern Belgium, a blaze consumed approximately 30 square kilometers in the High Fens (Hautes Fagnes), a significant nature reserve, marking one of the country’s most severe wildfires in recent memory. Around 600 residents in the nearby municipalities of Waimes and Bütgenbach, situated in Liège province near the German border, were instructed to evacuate on Saturday as winds shifted and smoke enveloped the area. Tourists were also advised to depart, with a nearby gymnasium set up to accommodate evacuees.
Hervé Jamar, the provincial governor of Liège, stated on Sunday that more than 250 emergency personnel, including over 100 Belgian and German firefighters, as well as police, military officers, and civil protection staff, had been mobilized. Firefighting helicopters operated by Belgium’s federal police and the Netherlands also provided assistance.
On a Greek island, the coast guard reported that an elderly couple perished outside their home on Salamina Island, west of Athens, close to where a fire originated. Over 500 individuals were evacuated from the island. The fire erupted during Greece’s peak summer holiday weekend around the Aug. 15 Assumption holiday, drawing many Athenians to nearby islands like Salamina, easily accessible from Athens’ main port of Piraeus. Numerous houses sustained damage, and five individuals were transported to a health clinic, according to local accounts.
Approximately 192 firefighters, along with 14 aircraft and helicopters, volunteer crews, and municipal water tankers, were deployed to control the blazes. Coast guard and firefighting vessels were dispatched to the island, with preparations made for potential sea evacuations from endangered coastal areas. Salamina was under a high wildfire risk warning on Sunday, with the cause of the fires not immediately ascertained.
The ongoing blaze in Belgium has eclipsed a 2011 fire that scorched nearly 14 square kilometers in the same region, previously being the country’s largest recorded wildfire, as per data from the European Forest Fire Information System. Nicolas Yernaux, a spokesperson for the Public Service of Wallonia, highlighted that conditions were notably 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 crews to access. Interior Minister Bernard Quintin noted on social media that firefighters successfully prevented the blaze from advancing westward toward the German town of Monschau. Local authorities in Germany cautioned on Sunday that the fire was approximately 1.5 kilometers away from the border.
Belgium invoked the European Union’s civil protection mechanism to receive aid from other countries, with Sweden dispatching two water-bombing aircraft, and three helicopters (two from the Netherlands and one from the Czech Republic) being deployed. The fire followed weeks of unusually hot and dry weather, complicating firefighting efforts in the High Fens’ heathland and peat bogs.
In France, firefighters battling a wildfire in the southwestern Landes region managed to contain the fire overnight, with authorities estimating the burned area at 17 square kilometers and evacuating around 650 individuals. In the UK, emergency crews were combatting 14 wildfires in South Wales with military support, emphasizing that despite the easing heat wave, drought conditions continued to pose a high wildfire risk.
In Germany, progress was made against a wildfire in the Hürtgen Forest, enabling approximately 2,000 evacuated residents of Gey to return home on Saturday. Officials confirmed on Sunday that no active flames remained, and crews had established a cleared cordon to prevent further fire spread.