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Wildfires tear through southern Europe in early August 2026, as France, Greece and Spain battle simultaneous blazes fueled by extreme heat and shifting winds.
From the hills of the Var region in southern France to the outskirts of Athens and the plains near Madrid, firefighters race to contain flames that have already scorched hundreds of thousands of hectares and forced tens of thousands from their homes.
In Correns, a small commune in the Var region of southern France near the Mediterranean coast, a wildfire flares up and spreads rapidly through dry, hilly terrain over the following days, burning around 1,850 hectares.
Local authorities describe the fire as stabilized but caution that it remains far from fully contained
Some 1,500 firefighters converge on the Var region, joined by reinforcements from other French departments and neighboring European countries.
Water-bombing aircraft fly repeated missions over the hardest-hit hillsides as ground crews work through the night, taking advantage of humid, calmer conditions before forecast winds return.
Temperatures climb toward 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) in Chateauvert and reach as high as 37 degrees Celsius elsewhere in the upper Var, as officials warn that stronger, shifting gusts could reignite hotspots.
An orange heat wave alert remains in effect across the department, and several forests are closed due to fire risk.
Exhaustion sets in among crews who have fought wildfires almost continuously for two weeks, first in the Gironde department and now in Var
Reinforcements arriving from outside the region allow tired firefighters brief pauses to rest, as officials acknowledge that fatigue itself has become a safety concern during the prolonged operation.
French authorities report 375 arrests linked to wildfires across the country since early summer, including 142 minors.
Of those detained, 36 face prison after receiving sentences or being placed in pre-trial detention. Officials say roughly two-thirds of examined incidents point to deliberate arson, while the remainder are classified as accidental.
Weeks earlier, a separate wildfire in the Gironde department of southwestern France, near Bordeaux, grows into the country's largest blaze since 1949, burning about 420 square kilometers.
The fire prompts what officials call France's largest civilian evacuation outside wartime, with more than 224,000 people fleeing the affected areas.
On the Cap Ferret peninsula, a popular tourist destination along France's Atlantic coast, and in the nearby municipality of Le Porge, residents and evacuees are beginning to return home as the Gironde fire is brought under control.
In Le Porge, the hardest-hit municipality, 183 homes are destroyed, and nearby campsites remain closed.
Attention shifts eastward to Greece, where a major wildfire breaks out near the coastal communities of Psatha and Porto Germeno, west of Athens.
The blaze eventually burns more than 10,000 hectares across the western Attica region, prompting a large-scale emergency response involving hundreds of firefighters, fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.
The firefighting effort near Athens turns tragic when two helicopters collide midair, killing a Greek and a Danish crew member and injuring two others, all from privately chartered operators.
The crash occurs as powerful gales hinder aerial operations over mountainous and coastal terrain during the weekend.
Winds ease, allowing crews to deploy 12 water-dropping planes and 11 helicopters around the fire-affected seaside resort of Porto Germenos.
A fire service spokesman describes conditions as improved but says multiple points of activity persist, requiring continued pressure from ground and air crews alike.
More than 1,000 people are evacuated from communities around Athens, including over 250 rescued by boat from area beaches, as authorities confirm more than 100 homes destroyed or damaged.
Investigators later attribute the blaze to a faulty power line linked to a wind farm and arrest two contractors on negligent arson charges.
Further west, wildfires in central Spain burn tens of thousands of hectares near Madrid before easing, allowing many evacuees to return home even as crews continue battling flare-ups and new hotspots in the provinces of Leon and Caceres. Across Spain overall, roughly 206,000 hectares of forest have burned so far this year.
Economists estimate that wildfires cost Spain approximately €7.1 billion ($8.18 billion) in 2022 alone, equivalent to about 4.5% of the country's gross domestic product, according to the European Commission.
Beyond firefighting expenses, researchers point to long-term damage to tourism, a sector on which Spain's economy heavily depends.
Across the European Union, more than 460,000 hectares have burned so far this year, well above historical averages, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Scientists note that climate change has made extreme fire weather at least twice as likely in France and at least 20 times more likely in Spain, raising concerns that Southern Europe faces a deepening wildfire crisis in the years ahead.
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