Two helicopters collided while battling Greece’s wildfire in the Psatha area of Athens on Sunday, killing two crew members, a Greek and a Danish national. The crash came as fire services across Greece struggled to stop multiple blazes in the greater Athens region and on Cephalonia island, while governments across southern Europe kept issuing statements and counting damage after the flames had already done their work.
The Fireline and the State
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed “sorrow for the tragic accident” and extended condolences to the families of the firefighters killed in the crash. He said: “The loss of the Greek coordinator and the Danish pilot at the time they were attempting the major fire in Porto Gremeno fills us all with grief.” The words landed alongside a grim tally: three firefighters died this week in the line of duty, two in Crete and one in the Peloponnese. The machinery of emergency response keeps moving, but it moves through loss.
Greece had faced “extreme weather conditions and winds” that often reached 100 kilometres an hour, Mitsotakis said. Civil Protection Minister Evangelos Tournas said gale-force winds created “extremely difficult conditions resulting in many cases where aircraft either cannot draw water or cannot carry out drops due to extreme turbulence.” For yet another night, fire service units on the ground were battling flames in Attica, Boeotia and Fokida under particularly adverse conditions, and shortly before midnight a new front broke out on Cephalonia. Though the winds eased late on Saturday, the greater Athens area and nearby Voiotia and the island of Evia were under near maximum fire risk on Sunday, the civil protection ministry said.
Damage Measured in Hectares, Homes, and Evacuations
Firefighters were trying to keep the fire from approaching the western outskirts of Athens after it scaled a mountain overnight. Porto Germeno and other villages were evacuated when the fire broke out on Friday, and local authorities said scores of homes were damaged or destroyed. Earlier this week, fires on the islands of Crete and Paros affected another 6,000 hectares. Theodore Giannaros, a wildfire meteorologist and senior researcher at the National Observatory, said the fires around Porto Germeno appear to have affected an area of over 10,000 hectares, almost double the original estimate. He wrote on Facebook: “Unfortunately, it is highly likely (if not almost certain) that this particular wildfire will be classified as a megafire.” By Sunday, wildfires in Greece had devastated over 12,000 hectares of forest and agricultural land.
France had 63,000 hectares of forest and agricultural land burnt since the beginning of July. The strongest fire in the Gironde region near Bordeaux is now contained and ravaged 42,000 hectares and destroyed 240 homes. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said: “we have returned to a more stable situation,” confirming earlier comments by Interior Minister Laurent Nunez. Of the 220,000 people who were evacuated, 208,000 have been able to go back home. It is the country’s largest wildfire since 1949.
The fire in the southeastern Var region is still under close surveillance. Regional prefect Simon Babre said firefighters there had managed to stem the advance of a fast-moving blaze that sprang up Friday. He said strong winds fanning the flames had caused them to spread “faster than a galloping horse” and warned that the situation was still “extremely precarious.” He added: “We’re staying cautious, because the fight goes on.” Across France, police have arrested 308 people in connection with the fires, of whom 33 are being held in custody.
Spain’s Emergency Lifted, the Flames Didn’t Care
Spain continues to grapple with multiple wildfires following the lifting of the national state of emergency declared on Thursday. In Zamora, northeast Spain, the fire in Fermoselle, where 11,134 hectares burned, flared up again on Saturday near Mámoles but was brought under control thanks to seven helicopters and three aeroplanes, and residents have now returned to their homes. The situation is worsening in León, with a new outbreak in San Tirso, in addition to those in Veguellina, where three villages have been evacuated, and Valdelaloba, which is showing positive signs.
In Cáceres, a lorry that caught fire on the A-66 sparked a wildfire that led to the precautionary evacuation of 150 people in Grimaldo and 650 in Casas de Millán. On Sunday, they were allowed to return, although they were required to remain in their homes, after some 1,500 hectares had been burnt. The major fires in the Sierra Oeste region of Madrid and Ávila, covering more than 70,000 hectares, remain under control. In the eastern region of Castellón, the fire in Vall d’Uixó was stabilised on its seventh day, with 9,568 hectares burnt and all evacuated residents now rehoused. The Civil Guard suspects it may have been started deliberately after detecting two separate sources of ignition.
Between 1 January and 2 August 2026, 186,544 hectares of forest were burnt in Spain, according to provisional figures released on Sunday by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge. In all of the EU, fires have burned around 485,000 hectares since the beginning of the year, which amounts to half of Cyprus’ surface area. The numbers keep climbing. The institutions keep counting.