At least 2 people killed as firefighters battle massive wildfires in Greece, Belgium
Firefighters battled a massive wildfire that scorched a nature reserve in eastern Belgium and another on a Greek island near Athens, where two people were killed on Sunday as hot and dry conditions fuelled fires across parts of Europe.
Dry conditions fuel record-breaking blaze in Belgium; U.K. and France also fight fires
The Associated Press
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Firefighters battled a massive wildfire that scorched a nature reserve in eastern Belgium and another on a Greek island near Athens, where two people were killed on Sunday as hot and dry conditions fuelled fires across parts of Europe.
A blaze in eastern Belgium burned about 30 square kilometres in the High Fens (Hautes Fagnes), a large nature reserve, in one of the country's worst wildfires in recent history.
About 600 residents in the nearby municipalities of Waimes and Bütgenbach, in Liège province near the German border, were told to flee on Saturday as winds shifted and smoke spread through the area. Authorities also advised tourists to leave, while a nearby gymnasium was opened to receive evacuees.
Hervé Jamar, provincial governor of Liège, said in a statement on Sunday that more than 250 emergency personnel have been deployed, including over 100 Belgian and German firefighters, as well as police and military officers and civil protection staff.
Firefighting helicopters operated by Belgium's federal police and the Netherlands also helped.
2 killed on Greek island
In Greece, the coast guard said an elderly couple died outside their home on the island of Salamina, west of Athens, near where a fire started. More than 500 people have been extricated from the island, it added.
The blaze took hold during Greece's peak summer getaway weekend around the Aug. 15 Assumption holiday, when many Athenians head to nearby islands such as Salamina, which is easily accessible from the capital's main port of Piraeus.
Houses have been damaged, while five people have been taken to a health clinic, according to local reports.
About 192 firefighters, 14 aircraft and helicopters, volunteer crews and municipal water tankers were deployed to contain the blazes.
Coast guard and firefighting vessels were sent to the island, with preparations made for possible sea evacuations from threatened coastal areas.
Salamina was under a high wildfire risk warning on Sunday. The cause of the fires was not immediately known.
Record-breaking wildfire in Belgium
The blaze now torching Belgium has far surpassed a 2011 fire that burned nearly 14 square kilometres in the same area and was previously the country's largest wildfire on record, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System.
Nicolas Yernaux, a spokesperson for the Public Service of Wallonia, said conditions were much worse this time. "We're dealing with something much deeper because we have very dry soil," he said.
René Dahmen, chief engineer at the Department of Nature and Forests, said the fire was still spreading on Sunday in an area that was difficult for crews to reach.
"On the eastern flank, there's a line at least a kilometre long where the fire is slowly advancing toward a municipal forest," Dahmen said. "That's the first priority now."
Interior Minister Bernard Quintin said on social media platform X that firefighters managed to keep the blaze from spreading toward the west and toward the German town of Monschau.
In Germany, local authorities warned on Sunday that the fire was about 1.5 kilometres from the border.
Some farmers from both Belgium and Germany filled up tanker trucks by pumping water from a nearby lake before heading toward the fire area to help firefighters.
European countries send firefighting aircraft
Belgium activated the European Union's civil protection mechanism to receive assistance from other countries, Hadja Lahbib, the EU's commissioner in charge of crisis management, said on X.
"The High Fens are burning. Belgium is not facing it alone," Lahbib said. Sweden sent two water-bombing aircraft, while three helicopters — two from the Netherlands and one from the Czech Republic — were also being deployed.
The fire follows weeks of unusually hot and dry weather. The High Fens' mix of heathland and peat bogs has complicated efforts to contain the flames.
Belgium was hit by another spell of intense heat this week, with temperatures reaching about 37 C in parts of the country on Friday.
Wildfires burn in France, U.K.
In France, firefighters battling a wildfire in a pine forest in the southwestern Landes region faced no major flare-ups overnight, Landes Prefect Gilles Clavreul said. Authorities estimated the total area burned at 17 square kilometres, while about 650 people had been evacuated from their homes.
It was the third major wildfire in the vast pine forests of southwestern France this summer, following two others in late July.
A massive wildfire in the neighbouring Gironde department burned about 420 square kilometres and forced the evacuation of about 220,000 people as it spread toward the Atlantic coast and the Bordeaux area.
In the United Kingdom, emergency crews were fighting 14 wildfires in South Wales with the support of military personnel. Authorities warned that although the heat wave is easing, drought conditions mean the risk of wildfires remains high.
Fires gutted more than a dozen homes in the West Midlands in central England this week as officials recorded the hottest day of the year on Thursday, when temperatures reached 38.1 C.
In Germany, firefighters made significant progress against a wildfire in the Hürtgen Forest, allowing about 2,000 evacuated residents of Gey to return home on Saturday. Officials said on Sunday there were no open flames and crews had established a cleared cordon around the affected area to prevent the fire from spreading.
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