Wildfires escalated throughout southern Europe on Wednesday, with an ongoing battle to safeguard the perimeter of Greece’s third-largest city and confirmed fatalities in Spain, Turkey, and Albania. In the vicinity of the Greek port city of Patras, firefighters faced challenges in shielding residences and agricultural properties as flames ravaged pine forests and olive groves. Massive columns of flames towered behind apartment complexes on the city’s outskirts, while numerous vehicles were engulfed in flames at a nearby impound lot.
According to Fire Service spokesperson Vassilis Vathrakoyiannis, the current day presented another challenging scenario with a persistent high fire risk across various parts of the country. Approximately 15 firefighters were either hospitalized or provided medical care for burns, smoke inhalation, or exhaustion. Residents actively joined the firefighting efforts, using cut branches to beat back the flames or dousing them with buckets of water while water-dropping aircraft and helicopters operated overhead.
Firefighting resources were severely strained in many affected nations as they combated multiple wildfire outbreaks following prolonged heat waves and temperature surges across the Mediterranean region. In Chios, Greece, fatigued firefighters resorted to sleeping on the roadside after an overnight shift. Aircraft were deployed to tackle fires in western Greece, the Patras region, and Zakynthos island, with Athens extending support to neighboring Albania in the collective effort to combat numerous wildfires. In Albania, an elderly man lost his life in a blaze south of the capital, Tirana.
Residents from four villages in central Albania were evacuated near a former army ammunition depot, with reports of explosions from buried Second World War-era artillery shells in the Korca district close to the Greek border. Spain’s Prime Minister extended condolences following the death of a firefighting volunteer in the severely affected Castile and León region. Evacuation centers in central Spain reached full capacity, with some individuals spending the night outdoors on folding beds. The most critical fires advanced northward into rural areas, prompting residents to wet their home walls as a protective measure.
In Turkey, a forestry worker perished while responding to a wildfire in a southern region, with the Forestry Ministry reporting an accident involving a fire truck that injured four others. Turkey has been combatting intense wildfires since late June, resulting in 18 fatalities, including rescue volunteers and forestry workers. France anticipated temperatures up to 42°C for the third consecutive day, issuing weather alerts empowering local authorities to cancel public events and cordon off high fire-risk areas.
In Portugal, the civil protection service reported the worsening of a blaze in Trancoso after lightning reignited the supposedly contained area. Authorities across Europe identified various causes for the wildfires, including negligent farming practices, poorly maintained power cables, and summer lightning storms. North Macedonia’s law enforcement suspected arson, possibly driven by rogue developers, as firefighters battled a blaze outside the capital, Skopje. The European Union swiftly dispatched aid to fire-affected nations, including non-member states, deploying ground crews and water-dropping aircraft to combat the blazes. The concentration of recent efforts was notably on Montenegro, where significant wildfires persisted in challenging terrains near the capital, Podgorica. Ljuban Tmusic, head of Montenegro’s civil protection agency, emphasized the insufficiency of resources in the face of the devastating natural disasters.