Wildfires are raging across holiday spots across Europe, with hundreds of firefighters battling blazes in Portugal, Greece, and Spain. International reinforcements have been sent to Portugal, where a massive fire has been burning for over three days.
In central Portugal’s Vouzela area, more than 1,200 firefighters and 15 aircrafts, are tackling a blaze that started on Thursday. The wildfire has already scorched an area of 12,000 hectares (30,000 acres), data from the European Union’s Copernicus satellite mapping agency revealed. The EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid confirmed that Spain sent 120 firefighters and 45 vehicles to Portugal on Friday, alongside three firefighting aircraft from Italy and Spain. By Sunday afternoon, the Portuguese blaze showed signs of abating, with local media quoting officials who stated there were no longer major active fronts, though hotspots persisted.
Meanwhile, authorities urged residents in parts of Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city, to remain indoors and keep windows and doors shut due to toxic smoke from a recycling plant engulfed by the flames.
Elsewhere in Greece, a large wildfire started on Sunday afternoon to the west of Athens. The fire department sent 210 firefighters, supported by volunteers, specialist teams, and 29 aircraft, including water-dropping planes and helicopters, to combat the blaze tearing through pine forest in the Mandra area. Crews were racing to contain the fire before nightfall, when aerial firefighting operations cease.
In Spain, a wildfire that ignited on Friday in the northeastern Girona region has consumed nearly 2,200 hectares (5,400 acres), according to the EFE news agency. Eduard Martinez, head of operations for the Catalan Fire Service, noted the blaze had a 40-kilometre (25-mile) perimeter, and firefighters might not bring it under control by Sunday, EFE reported.
Toxic smoke in Greece
On the other side of southern Europe, in Greece, a fast-moving blaze at a recycling plant broke out Saturday evening near the Oraiokastro suburb of Thessaloniki, triggering evacuation alerts for three suburbs and a facility housing 157 people with disabilities.
Strong winds fanned the flames, and around 160 firefighters were deployed to battle the flames through the night until water-dropping aircraft could take off at dawn, the fire department said.
Oraiokastro Mayor Pandelis Tsakiris said on Greece’s state broadcaster ERT that several businesses and homes were damaged but a clearer picture would emerge after authorities conduct a full evaluation.
A 76-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of having started the blaze through negligence by generating sparks with his vehicle that set vegetation near the road alight, the fire department said. He was due to appear before a prosecutor Sunday.
The fire came days after another wildfire in a nearby area killed a 12-year-old boy and his father.
Cause of fires in Greece
Fire department spokesman Brig. Ioannis Artopoios, speaking on ERT TV on Sunday, said that about 85% of wildfires in Greece were caused by negligence, including through sparks generated through the use of agriculture machinery, discarded cigarettes and the use of outdoor barbecues. “This means most of them could have been avoided,” he said.
Greece suffers frequent, often devastating, wildfires during its hot, dry summers. In 2018, a blaze east of Athens killed more than 100 people, while a massive fire in 2023, which tore through a remote nature reserve in northeastern Greece, was the largest wildfire recorded in the EU.
The country has increasingly turned to technology to combat the threat of fires, exacerbated by climate change. It is integrating an array of four satellites, launched into low orbit in May, that will monitor for wildfires.
So far this summer, Greece has been spared the heatwaves that have scorched much of western Europe in recent weeks. But it has still seen dozens of blazes across the country, both on the mainland and the country’s islands.
