Firefighters fought against 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 escalating fires across parts of Europe.
In eastern Belgium, a fire consumed approximately 30 square kilometres in the High Fens (Hautes Fagnes), a significant nature reserve, marking one of the worst wildfires in recent Belgian history. Nearly 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 engulfed the area. Authorities recommended tourists to depart, while a nearby gymnasium was set up to accommodate evacuees.
Hervé Jamar, the provincial governor of Liège, disclosed in a statement on Sunday that more than 250 emergency personnel were dispatched, including over 100 Belgian and German firefighters, in addition to police, military officers, and civil protection staff. Firefighting helicopters operated by Belgium’s federal police and the Netherlands also provided assistance.
In Greece, the coast guard reported that an elderly couple perished outside their residence on the island of Salamina, west of Athens, close to where a fire originated. Over 500 individuals were rescued from the island. The incident occurred during Greece’s peak summer holiday weekend surrounding the Aug. 15 Assumption holiday when many Athenians visit nearby islands like Salamina, easily accessible from the capital’s main port of Piraeus.
The wildfire resulted in property damage, with five individuals taken to a health clinic as per local reports. Approximately 192 firefighters, 14 aircraft and helicopters, volunteer crews, and municipal water tankers were mobilized to combat the blazes. 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 warning on Sunday, and the cause of the fires remained unknown.
The ongoing blaze in Belgium has surpassed a 2011 fire that affected nearly 14 square kilometres in the same area, previously the country’s largest wildfire on record, as indicated by 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 a challenging area for crews to access. Interior Minister Bernard Quintin confirmed on social media that firefighters successfully averted the fire from spreading westward towards the German town of Monschau. German local authorities cautioned on Sunday that the fire was approximately 1.5 kilometres from the border.
Belgium activated the European Union’s civil protection mechanism to receive support from other countries. Hadja Lahbib, the EU’s commissioner for crisis management, assured that assistance was being provided to Belgium, emphasizing that the High Fens wildfire was not solely Belgium’s challenge. Additional firefighting aircraft were sent by European countries to aid in the efforts.
The fire outbreaks follow a period of unusually high temperatures and dry weather. The combination of heathland and peat bogs in the High Fens complicated the firefighting operations. Belgium experienced another wave of intense heat recently, with temperatures reaching around 37 degrees Celsius in certain areas on Friday.