Across the European continent, a spreading wave of destructive wildfires amplified by extreme heat and parched vegetation left two people dead on a Greek island over the weekend, while firefighters in Belgium raced to contain the largest blaze the nation has seen in modern history. The 2024 summer of historic high temperatures has already been linked to thousands of heat-related deaths across the region, and created the perfect dry conditions that have sent wildfire risk soaring to unprecedented levels. Here’s a breakdown of the latest updates on the cross-continental crisis.
On the Greek island of Salamis, a popular tourist destination just off the coast of Athens, two separate fire ignitions left two people dead this Sunday, prompting emergency officials to order the evacuation of hundreds of beachgoers and permanent local residents. “There are hundreds of bathers and permanent residents in the affected area, an evacuation order has been issued,” Yiannis Artopios, deputy spokesperson for Greece’s national fire service, confirmed to state public broadcaster ERT.
In eastern Belgium, military helicopter crews and ground teams operating agricultural tractors worked around the clock to deliver massive volumes of water to firefighters battling an out-of-control wildfire raging across an isolated, hard-to-access nature reserve. While no fatalities have been reported in the Belgian blaze, the size of the fire has exploded dramatically since Friday, when it had burned just 80 hectares of land. By Sunday, the scorched area had expanded to nearly 3,000 hectares, and the origin of the ignition remains under official investigation.
Croatian law enforcement announced Sunday that they had taken four people into custody on suspicion of deliberately starting multiple wildfires that have burned across swathes of the country’s Adriatic coastline in recent days. The four suspects are accused of setting blazes that have destroyed large areas of native pine forest and commercial olive groves, as the country fights a growing outbreak of fires driven by prolonged drought and record-breaking heat.
In southwestern France, firefighters have successfully stabilized a major wildfire that burned 1,700 hectares of land in the Landes region after three days of coordinated ground and aerial firefighting operations. Local government official Gilles Clavreul reported that the situation is progressing “favourably”, thanks to a recent drop in air temperatures and rising humidity. When the fire first broke out Thursday, local temperatures hit 40 degrees Celsius; Sunday afternoon temperatures were forecast to reach just 28 degrees. While roughly 650 evacuated residents have been able to leave temporary emergency accommodation, they have not yet been cleared to return to their properties.