Firefighters have been engaged in combatting an extensive 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 that have fueled fires across various parts of Europe.
In eastern Belgium, a fire has consumed around 30 square kilometers in the High Fens (Hautes Fagnes), marking one of the most severe wildfires the country has experienced in recent times. Approximately 600 residents in the nearby municipalities 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 set up to accommodate evacuees.
Hervé Jamar, the provincial governor of Liège, announced 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, have been deployed to manage the situation. Firefighting helicopters operated by Belgium’s federal police and the Netherlands also provided assistance.
In Greece, the coast guard reported the tragic deaths of an elderly couple outside their residence on the island of Salamina, located west of Athens, where a fire broke out. Over 500 individuals have been rescued from the island. The incident occurred during Greece’s summer peak holiday weekend around the Aug. 15 Assumption holiday, a time when many Athenians visit nearby islands like Salamina, easily accessible from the capital’s primary port of Piraeus. Several houses have been damaged, and five individuals have been transported to a health clinic.
A significant firefighting effort involving around 192 firefighters, 14 aircraft and helicopters, volunteer teams, and municipal water tankers has been mobilized to contain the blazes. Coast guard and firefighting vessels were dispatched to the island, with preparations made for potential sea evacuations from coastal regions under threat.
Salamina was under a high wildfire risk alert on Sunday, with the cause of the fires not yet determined. The wildfire in Belgium has now exceeded a previous 2011 fire that burned nearly 14 square kilometers in the same region, marking the largest wildfire on record in the country. Nicolas Yernaux, a spokesperson for the Public Service of Wallonia, highlighted the worsened conditions this time, emphasizing the extremely dry soil as a significant factor.
René Dahmen, chief engineer at the Department of Nature and Forests, reported on Sunday that the fire was still spreading in an area challenging for firefighting crews to access. Interior Minister Bernard Quintin noted on social media that efforts had successfully prevented the fire from advancing westward towards the German town of Monschau. Local German authorities cautioned that the fire was about 1.5 kilometers away from the border.
Belgium activated the European Union’s civil protection mechanism to receive aid from other countries. Hadja Lahbib, the EU’s crisis management commissioner, assured that assistance was being coordinated, with Sweden sending two water-bombing aircraft, and three helicopters from the Netherlands and the Czech Republic being deployed to support the firefighting efforts.
The fires come after a period of unusually hot and dry weather, complicating containment efforts due to the High Fens’ diverse landscape of heathland and peat bogs. Belgium experienced another surge of intense heat recently, with temperatures reaching approximately 37 degrees Celsius in some areas on Friday.
Elsewhere in Europe, France, the UK, and Germany have also faced wildfires. In France, a wildfire in the Landes region burned an estimated 17 square kilometers, prompting the evacuation of about 650 individuals. The UK faced 14 wildfires in South Wales, while Germany made progress in containing a wildfire in the Hürtgen Forest, allowing evacuated residents to return home.