Europe faces one of its most severe forest fire crises in recent history. From the Mediterranean basin to further north latitudes, an out-of-control wave of fires is ravaging thousands of hectares, forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of people and testing the emergency services of a continent ablaze. The map is bleak, with hotspots stretching from the Greek coasts to the Portuguese borders, fueled by a lethal combination of extreme heat waves, persistent drought, and hurricane-force winds.
What was once a seasonal problem in southern Europe has become a continental emergency. The emergency services, overwhelmed, are not only fighting to contain the flames that threaten homes and lives but also to save vast stretches of crops and forests, the lungs of the continent.
Greece is, without a doubt, the country most affected by this wave of fires. The country faces dozens of active hotspots simultaneously, with thousands of firefighters and rescue teams working relentlessly. The mass evacuations of residents and tourists have become a routine measure to avert a human catastrophe.
Heart-wrenching testimonies illustrate the gravity of the situation. A man who has lost his home recounts with helplessness the ferocity of the fire: “It has been unlike anything we had seen before. It was impossible to tell where the fire was coming from. There were too many fronts, to the right, to the left. At one moment we saw it a kilometer away and it was immediately in front of us.” In an attempt to control the situation, the Greek police have detained at least three people suspected of deliberately starting fires near the port city of Patras, one of the most hard-hit areas.
Despite an unprecedented figure of 18,000 firefighters deployed, Greek authorities acknowledge that efforts are seriously hampered by extreme weather conditions. The fire, started in many cases by arsonists or thunderstorms, and fueled by a historic heatwave, is spreading with a speed and ferocity rarely seen.
As in Spain, Portugal is suffering the scourge of the fires, concentrated mainly in the northern and central areas. Hundreds of firefighters and dozens of aircraft are working day and night to control hotspots that have been active for days, especially in the Vila Real mountainous region. The situation is a harsh reminder of the fires that devastated the country in previous years.
But the crisis does not end in the Iberian Peninsula. The spread of the fire is a problem that has reached all of southern Europe and beyond. Especially in the Balkans where the fire shows no respite to the populations of that region.
The crisis has spread across the entire Mediterranean region. Albania and Montenegro have also had to mobilize their emergency services to fight the fires, with large columns of smoke visible from different parts of their territories. In Turkey, authorities are fighting the fire in southern provinces such as Mersin, where the lack of humidity and the strong winds hinder the task and have forced the evacuation of at least six towns.
The situation is so grave that the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism has been activated 16 times this year alone during the fire season, a figure that equals the total number of fire-related activations in all of 2024. This emergency resource, which allows countries to request help and resources from other member states, has been activated by Greece, Spain, Bulgaria, Montenegro and Albania, underscoring the inability of the countries to face the situation on their own.
The spokesperson for the European Commission has confirmed the activation of the mechanism, highlighting the magnitude of the crisis. It is evident that the threat is not exclusive to the Mediterranean. Nations in central and northern Europe, such as Germany and the United Kingdom, have recorded a record area burned for this time of year. A fact that underscores that the risk is spreading to other latitudes of the continent, marking a new and dangerous era in the fight against forest fires.
