Wildfires are burning on a wide front across Europe on Saturday, stretching emergency services from the Atlantic coast of France to the Aegean islands of Greece. A historically hot, dry summer has contributed to thousands of deaths across the continent and left forests primed to burn.
In southwest France, a fire in the Landes region burning since Thursday reignited in the early hours of Saturday, forcing the evacuation of an additional 100 residents and visitors around the town of Luglon. Regional prefect Gilles Clavreul said the blaze has now destroyed 15.8 square kilometers of forest—roughly six square miles—and a total of 650 people have been driven from their homes. The Landes fire broke out less than a month after a separate fire in July scorched 37 square kilometers of the same area. Clavreul said he formally requested that the national government deploy a Chinook water-bombing helicopter that Australia supplied to France to assist with this season's wildfire crisis.
The French response involves 550 firefighters. The Landes is one of the largest planted forest areas in Europe, making a reignited blaze particularly difficult to contain once it reaches the forest's dense interior.
Eastern Belgium is fighting a fire at the Fagnes natural park, near the border with Germany. The fire started Friday and spread rapidly overnight, burning through 16 square kilometers of forest by Saturday. Belgian authorities called in firefighter reinforcements from across the country as well as from Germany to supplement local crews.
The German side of the border is also in crisis. In the Eifel region, directly across from Belgium, roughly 1,400 firefighters are working Saturday to hold a major fire that forced the evacuation of approximately 1,800 people from Hurtgenwald, a town of 9,000 residents. The Eifel blaze adds a second front to the cross-border emergency that Belgian and German crews are now managing in parallel.
In Croatia, more than 100 firefighters and two water-bombing aircraft worked through Friday night to protect homes threatened by a major fire on the island of Dugi Otok in the Adriatic. A second Croatian fire, which burned through vineyards and olive groves on the Peljesac peninsula farther south, was brought under control Friday evening after a sustained effort involving 240 firefighters and three aircraft.
Serbian authorities reported Friday night that they were managing 25 active wildfires classified as serious. The most damaging has burned 25 square kilometers of land in Deliblatska national park, located near Belgrade.
Spain is dealing with an extended emergency in the northeastern Aragon region, where a fire now in its sixth consecutive day has affected more than 15,000 hectares. Firefighters say they have stopped the fire from advancing toward populated areas and two monasteries, including one whose origins date to the 10th century. Around 1,000 people from 18 villages and settlements remain under evacuation orders, though forecasters expect light rain and cooler temperatures in the coming days, which would ease conditions for crews.
Greece has not recorded a major single blaze on the scale seen elsewhere in Europe but remains on high alert. The Greek fire service said more than 50 agricultural and forest fires broke out across the country in the 24 hours ending Saturday, driven by strong winds and high fire-risk conditions in several regions. Most were contained quickly, but the volume of simultaneous ignitions reflects the sustained pressure on Greek firefighters.
The simultaneous fires across seven countries show how a single prolonged heat and drought pattern can overwhelm national firefighting resources at the same time, making cross-border coordination—as seen between Belgium and Germany—an operational necessity rather than a diplomatic formality. France's request for an Australian helicopter shows how far afield Europe is reaching for aerial firefighting capacity this season.
