Wildfires rage in France and Greece as Belgium tackles enormous blaze – Europe live

Morning opening: Wildfires rage in Belgium, France, Greece

Jakub Krupa

Belgium’s King Philippe will visit the area affected by what is believed to be the largest wildfire in the country’s history this morning, after a weekend of intense firefighting in the Hautes Fagnes nature reserve.

The fire has been raging since Friday afternoon, burning more than 3,000 hectares of land, provisional figures show.

Over the weekend, the blaze crept closer to the German border, prompting the precautionary evacuation of parts of the town of Monschau.

As of Monday morning, light rain helped to stop the spread of the fire east towards Germany, but the blaze continued to grow in the north-eastern direction, local media reported.

Belgian newspaper Le Soir warned: “This is no longer just a warning,” lamenting the severe impact of the summer heatwave and the mounting losses.

Over the weekend, large wildfires were also reported in France and Greece.

I will bring you all the updates during the day.

It’s Monday, 17 August 2026, it’s Jakub Krupa here, and this is Europe Live.

Wildfires kill two in Greece and torch Belgian nature reserve

Angela Giuffrida

An elderly couple died in fires on the Greek island of Salamis on Sunday and Belgium is battling its largest modern-day wildfire at an inaccessible area near Germany, in the latest wave of European wildfires.

The couple died outside their home in the Peristeria beach area of Salamis, Greece’s coastguard said. More than 500 people were ordered to evacuate.

In Spain, a soldier died on Sunday while helping efforts to extinguish a large wildfire in Aragon, authorities said. French reinforcements were due to help contain the wildfire in the north-eastern region, which has raged for a week and threatened a 1,000-year-old monastery.

In Portugal, hundreds of firefighters were battling a series of blazes. At a wildfire near Dine, a village close to the border with Spain, five firefighters were injured when their vehicle caught fire, local media reported. Other fires were burning near the Spanish border, including at Boticas and Chavez.

Human-caused climate breakdown is supercharging extreme weather around the world, driving more frequent and deadlier disasters from heatwaves to floods to wildfires.

Much of Europe is experiencing a new period of intense heat, creating conditions conducive to wildfire outbreaks.

On Friday a fire engulfed homes in a Croatian holiday resort, killing one person, injuring 40 and forcing 1,200 to evacuate, officials said, as the EU warned that pockets of “very extreme” wildfire conditions stretched across the continent.

Hundreds more people were evacuated from villages in western Germany and south-west France, while stranded holidaymakers were picked up from beaches threatened by flames in Greece and the army rescued historical relics in Spain.