Helicopter collision in Greece underscores peril of Europe's wildfire emergency

Two firefighting helicopters collided on Sunday near the Greek village of Porto Germeno, west of Athens, while battling a wind-driven wildfire. Video footage showed one of the aircraft falling to the ground. Each helicopter carried a two-person crew, the Greek fire department confirmed. A search-and-rescue operation was ongoing, but authorities did not immediately disclose the condition of the crew members.

The collision highlights the extreme dangers faced by emergency responders as wildfires continue to scorch large parts of Europe. The continent is fighting what officials describe as an unprecedented wildfire emergency, with major fronts in Greece, France and Spain.

In Greece, strong winds drove flames deeper into western Attica, the region surrounding the capital, triggering new evacuations and threatening communities and an industrial district outside Megara. Violent gusts also prevented firefighting aircraft from collecting seawater, crippling aerial efforts to contain the blaze.

The fire near Athens began on Friday near the village of Agios Vasileios and swept towards Porto Germeno and the forested mountains. Officials ordered evacuations for Kandili, Agia Skepi and Toutouli as smoke billowed over the hills. Firefighters had already evacuated 254 people by sea on Friday and another 12 on Saturday, as roads were cut off by fire and smoke.

Wildfire meteorologist Theodore Giannaros estimated that the blaze had affected between 40 and 50 square kilometres of land, though official figures had not been issued. Elsewhere in Greece, flames threatened homes on the island of Kefalonia, prompting evacuations, while firefighters battled another fire near Nea Tenedos in the Halkidiki region.

The danger is a grim reminder of the 2018 Mati wildfire, which killed 104 people near Athens — the deadliest blaze in Europe this century.

Across the continent, France continued to grapple with a massive fire in the Gironde region, which has been held within a containment perimeter but remains far from extinguished. Hotspots continued to burn within a scorched area of 420 square kilometres — roughly four times the size of Paris. Nearly 3,000 firefighters remained deployed against the Gironde megafire and a separate blaze in Provence, which was still not under control.

The French fire has already forced an estimated 224,000 people to flee, potentially the largest civilian evacuation in the country outside wartime. Across France and Spain, the fires have displaced roughly one-third of a million people from homes and holiday sites, emptying communities in the height of the European summer and overwhelming emergency services.

The scale of destruction is part of a broader trend. Europe entered 2026 after its worst fire year on record, with more than 10,000 square kilometres burned across the continent in 2025. The European Environment Agency has linked wildfires to nearly 800 deaths over the past four decades in much of Europe.

Scientists attribute the growing danger to human-caused climate change. Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent, having warmed more than twice the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service. In a rapid analysis conducted during this year's French blazes, the World Weather Attribution network found that climate change made the extreme fire-weather conditions behind the fires at least twice as likely.

As gale-force winds continue to hamper firefighting efforts near Athens, Greek authorities have urged residents to remain vigilant. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has been briefed on the operation. Earlier this week, two firefighters died while battling a fire on Crete, underscoring the mortal risks that crews face on the front lines of Europe's escalating wildfire crisis.