Wildfires Are Burning Across Europe — Even in Places Not Used to Them
Two people died and hundreds were evacuated on the Greek island of Salamis on Sunday 16 August 2026, after two fires broke out on the island near Athens, according to a fire department spokesperson quoted by AFP (The Guardian; Straits Times; NAMPA). The bodies of the two victims were recovered from the Peristeria beach area of Salamis. The island sits in the Saronic Gulf, a short distance from Piraeus, Greece's largest port.
The Salamis fires are part of a wider pattern of wildfire activity across Europe this week. On Friday, a fire engulfed homes in a Croatian holiday resort, killing one person, injuring 40, and forcing 1,200 people to evacuate (The Guardian). The EU has warned that pockets of "very extreme" wildfire conditions stretch across Europe (The Guardian).
The most surprising development is not in the Mediterranean, where summer fires are common, but in eastern Belgium. A wildfire that broke out on Friday in the High Fens, a nature reserve popular with hikers, had burned 3,000 hectares (about 7,400 acres) of land and was approaching the German border by early Sunday morning (The Guardian). Officials described the fire as the largest in Belgium's modern history.
The High Fens is a raised peat bog, meaning the ground is made of wet, spongy plant material that has built up over thousands of years. When that material dries out, it can burn. The area last experienced comparable destruction in 1911, when massive wildfires swept through during a drought.
About 600 people in the towns of Waimes and Bütgenbach were told to evacuate. Around 20 of them spent the night in a sports hall. Others stayed with family and friends. Access to Bütgenbach lake was prohibited on Sunday so that firefighting aircraft could scoop up water to refill their tanks.
The response involved a major international effort. Provincial governor Hervé Jamar said more than 250 firefighters and emergency staff were involved, including firefighters deployed from Germany. Air support came from two water-bombing aircraft sent by Sweden and four helicopters, two Belgian and two Dutch. Belgium's interior minister, Bernard Quintin, visited the crisis centre in Vottem on Sunday and reported that two fire fronts, those advancing toward Jalhay and Monschau, were under control (The Guardian).
The international response to the High Fens fire is worth noting on its own. Sweden sending aircraft, the Netherlands supplying helicopters, and German firefighters operating on Belgian soil all point to the EU's growing use of cross-border civil protection, a system that lets countries share emergency resources when one country's own capacity is not enough. The fact that a cooler northern European country like Belgium needed this level of help shows how far beyond the usual Mediterranean fire zone the current conditions reach.
Greece's wildfire response system remains active. The Greek Civil Protection ministry posts daily fire-risk prediction maps on its website, including maps dated for 16 and 17 August 2026 (civilprotection.gov.gr). The ministry also operates the 112 emergency number, which can send mass alerts to people's phones during natural disasters or dangerous events (civilprotection.gov.gr).
The Salamis deaths and the Croatian resort fire, along with the unprecedented scale of the Belgian blaze, paint a picture of a fire season that is geographically broader than what European planners have historically prepared for. The High Fens fire matters because it took place in a peat bog in a region where large-scale wildfire response has not traditionally been a major part of emergency planning. The 1911 precedent shows these ecosystems can burn, but with more than a century since the last comparable fire, the local experience, equipment, and know-how for fighting peat fires are thin.
The broader context here is what the EU's description of "very extreme" conditions across the continent means for future planning. It suggests that the old assumption, that southern European countries face the worst wildfire risk while northern countries help out, may be breaking down. When Belgium needs Swedish aircraft and Dutch helicopters to contain a fire on its own soil, the usual donor-recipient relationship within European emergency arrangements shifts. Countries that have traditionally sent help to others may need to look at their own readiness, because fires are now appearing on multiple fronts at the same time.
