From Crete’s rugged hillsides to Britain’s Suffolk coast and Turkey’s Mediterranean interior, firefighters across Europe are facing a volatile stretch of wildfire weather — even as some fronts show signs of easing.
Greek crews are still fighting a major blaze on the tourist island of Crete, though officials say the picture has improved.
“The situation around Rethymno is better,” a fire department spokesperson said.
Even so, the spokesperson cautioned the fire remains active: the blaze “has not yet been contained, there are still many hotspots,” he said.
Other fires continued to burn on the Aegean islands of Paros, Kalymnos and Andros, but the fire service said “the situation is better” there as well.
Satellite analysis indicates the fire south of the tourist town of Rethymno has already left a large footprint. About 4,500 hectares were scorched on Wednesday and yesterday, according to meteo.gr, the weather service of the National Observatory of Athens, citing satellite imagery assessed through the European Union’s Copernicus programme.
Firefighting efforts have been hampered by strong, persistent winds and difficult terrain, authorities said, factors that can cause flames to shift rapidly and make ground access dangerous.
With multiple outbreaks across the country, Greece has moved into heightened readiness. Firefighters and civil protection services have been placed on general alert nationwide, fire brigade spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis said at a briefing yesterday.
Additional firefighting resources have been dispatched to Crete
Today, Greek civil protection warned that large swathes of the country — including the Athens region, Crete, many Aegean islands and parts of the Peloponnese — face a “very high” wildfire risk, the second-highest category on Greece’s five-point scale.
Mr Vathrakogiannis said Greece’s island geography makes it harder to move personnel and equipment quickly when fires break out in multiple places at once.
Additional firefighting resources have been dispatched to Crete.
Air operations, typically crucial on island fires, have been severely constrained. “Strong winds and dense smoke are creating conditions of near-zero visibility and severe turbulence, making aerial water drops extremely difficult, if not impossible,” he said, particularly in Crete.
Authorities ordered the evacuation of around 8,000 residents and tourists on Wednesday from the coastal resort of Agia Galini.
As Crete’s peak tourist season continues, most of those evacuated have since returned to their homes and hotels.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Greece — which had largely avoided the severe heatwaves and major wildfires experienced earlier this summer in countries including France and Spain — was now heading into a tougher phase.
“August … is traditionally a difficult month,” he said.
The fire department spokesperson also warned that “conditions are expected to worsen further in the coming days”.
Greek authorities said three firefighters have died this week while battling wildfires in Crete and the Peloponnese.
Suffolk fire like ‘an apocalypse film’
In Britain, fire crews working near one of the country’s biggest nuclear power stations said a large blaze on the Suffolk coast stabilised overnight, but warned that conditions remain ripe for fresh flare-ups.
The fire, close to the Sizewell B nuclear power station, has devastated 150 hectares of land and forced residents, holidaymakers and caravan park visitors to leave the area.
More than 100 firefighters and a helicopter have been tackling the blaze since Wednesday.
Deputy Chief Fire Officer for Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service Henry Griffin said an investigation is under way into the cause.
Mr Griffin said, “we have a couple of fire fronts we are actively monitoring, checking on their wind speed, checking on that wind direction, to make sure any reignition is controlled and monitored throughout the coming hours.
“Due to the scale and unpredictable nature of the wind direction I wouldn’t say it is under control, it’s certainly stabilised and we have plans in place to mitigate,” he added.
Authorities have stressed that there was no concern about the fire spreading towards the the Sizewell B nuclear power station
About 50 people have been evacuated from their homes and a nearby holiday park. Cliff House Holiday Park — with around 200 caravans — was fully cleared as a precaution.
Connor Dowsett, who was evacuated from his grandparents’ lodge, described the scene as something “out of an apocalypse film”.
Mr Dowsett said, “we noticed the moon … it was very orange. As we were getting closer, we could see the glow of the fire.
“We could see the brown smoke filling the air. The smell was powerful.
“It was a scary, scary sight.”
According to the UK Met Office, Suffolk has only received 2% of its average monthly rainfall for July so far
For long-time visitors Martin Harris, 80, and his wife Sheila Harris, 76, the evacuation was sudden and personal. The couple, who have been coming to a holiday park in the area for more than 40 years, said they only had time to grab their medication before leaving their static caravan.
Mrs Harris said they saw a “glow”, adding, “it went from just being in the distance, and suddenly we were just covered in this black, and it was really scary so we just wanted to get out.”
“Yesterday, I had a really bad moment because I suddenly thought, ‘I’ve been on site since 1980.’
“‘If the caravan goes, then no chance of affording another one,” she added.
Turkey battle 169 wildfires this week
In Turkey, hundreds of firefighters battled strong winds on Thursday as they worked to contain a wildfire in the country’s southwest, while other wind-driven blazes along the Mediterranean coastline were brought under control.
Forestry Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said firefighters had dealt with 169 fires this week, and that only one remained out of control — in the Cine area, about 100 kilometres inland from the resort city of Bodrum.
Crews laboured through the night and evacuated animals from four areas. By morning, nine helicopters, three firefighting planes, 42 fire engines and nine water tankers were deployed against the flames.
Authorities remain on alert in case any fires reignite.
Residents who fled the affected areas said they were left devastated by what they saw.
“We’ve been reduced to ashes, nothing is left. My dog is gone, he was more precious to me than my own life,” said Arzu Celep.
“Everything we owned has gone up in flames. We took our animals uphill, if we’d stayed here, we’d have gone up in flames too,” said another woman called Raziye Askin.
Turkey had largely avoided wildfires this year until now, after heavy winter rains and snowfall replenished groundwater and helped protect vegetation.
According to the European Forest Fire Information System, Turkey has recorded 64 fires this year, burning more than 22,000 hectares of land.
Millions exposed to wildfire pollution
Beyond the burn zones, scientists say wildfire smoke has become a health concern on a continental scale. Fires in France and Spain over the past few days have exposed millions of people to air pollution that can damage health, researchers said.
Smoke from wildfires carries a cocktail of pollutants that can degrade air quality hundreds of kilometres from the flames.
Scientists said they are especially worried about fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5, which is linked to cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer and respiratory problems.
“We know that this has a really major health effect, particularly when there’s exposure over multiple days,” said Theodore Keeping, a climate scientist at Imperial College London.
“We’re seeing increasingly severe and frequent high-intensity fires where people are exposed to these very, very high levels of PM2.5.”
Smoke from fires contains a mix of pollutants that reduce air quality even hundreds of kilometres away
In Bordeaux, PM2.5 concentrations surged to peaks above 300 micrograms per cubic metre on 26 July, according to EU Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service data.
Mr Keeping said Bordeaux averaged 115 micrograms on 26 July — almost five times the EU’s average daily limit.
In Limoges, more than 200km northeast of Bordeaux, PM2.5 levels peaked above 400 micrograms per cubic metre over the weekend.
Wildfires in Europe have emitted 18 millions of metric tons of CO2 this year
Scientists warned that smoke-driven PM2.5 can become even more harmful as particles mix with other substances in wildfire plumes, increasing their toxicity.
Wildfires in Europe have emitted 18 million metric tons of CO2 this year, according to the European Forest Fire Information System, which said France has logged its highest fire CO2 emissions on record for this point in the year.
Half of the EU’s fire emissions this year occurred in the last week alone.
Researchers said this year’s fire emissions have not yet reached a level that would derail climate targets, but warned that could shift as climate change extends high-risk fire conditions into northern regions with CO2-storing forests.
“Once we start seeing fire weather conditions that cause large fires in those regions, where that’s a large part of their net zero target, then that would be more of an issue,” Mr Keeping said.
