Two firefighters died Sunday when helicopters collided while battling wildfires in Greece's Psatha area near Athens, bringing the week's death toll to five as southern Europe struggles with blazes that've burned 485,000 hectares across the EU this year. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed "sorrow for the tragic accident" involving a Greek coordinator and a Danish pilot, who died while attempting to fight the major fire in Porto Germeno.
Greece's fire services are stretched to breaking point. Civil Protection Minister Evangelos Tournas said Saturday the fire department had been "pushed to its limits." Three firefighters died this week in the line of duty, two in Crete and one in the Peloponnese. The latest deaths occurred as 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," Tournas said.
Greece's Emergency Intensifies
Fire service units on the ground were battling flames in regions near Athens — Attica, Boeotia and Fokida — under particularly adverse conditions, and shortly before midnight on Saturday a new front broke out on Cephalonia, an Ionian Sea island. Prime Minister Mitsotakis said Greece had faced "extreme weather conditions and winds" that often reached 100 kilometres an hour. 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. 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. Earlier this week, fires on the islands of Crete and Paros affected another 6,000 hectares.
France Stabilises After Record Losses
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. It's the country's largest wildfire since 1949. 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.
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 on 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 Ongoing Battle
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.
Why This Matters:
The scale of this summer's wildfires reveals the fiscal and operational limits of national emergency services across southern Europe. Greece's fire department has been pushed to breaking point, France has deployed unprecedented resources to contain its largest fire since 1949, and Spain has burned more forest in seven months than in many full years. The human cost — five firefighters dead in Greece alone this week — underscores the need for member states to invest in fire prevention infrastructure, not just emergency response. With 485,000 hectares burned across the EU this year, national governments face mounting pressure to balance climate adaptation spending with other budget priorities. The arrest of 308 people in France in connection with the fires, and the Civil Guard's suspicion of deliberate ignition in Castellón, also raises questions about enforcement and deterrence that individual member states must address through their own legal frameworks.