Two Greek firefighting helicopters collided in midair as they were battling a wind-driven wildfire west of Athens, sending one aircraft crashing to the ground. Two crew members, a Greek and a Danish national, died in the crash.
The collision on Sunday (local time) laid bare the danger at the most volatile front of Europe’s wildfire emergency. Strong winds drove flames deeper into the region of the Greek capital and forced fresh evacuations, France guarded a still-burning scar four times the size of Paris, while Spain’s major fires stopped advancing.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed "sorrow for the tragic accident" and extended condolences to the families of the firefighters killed in the crash.
"The loss of the Greek coordinator and the Danish pilot at the time they were attempting the major fire in Porto Gremeno fills us all with grief," Mitsotakis said in a statement.
The aircraft were Bell helicopters operating over the Psatha area west of Athens, each with a two-person crew. Foreign firefighting and helicopter crews are often deployed in Greece to help tackle wildfires during the country's hot, dry summers.
The two crew members who were recovered alive were a Greek and a British national.
The flames had spread rapidly, threatening communities and an industrial district as violent gusts prevented firefighting aircraft from collecting water from the sea. The blaze carried a grim resonance in a region where the 2018 Mati wildfire killed 104 people, Europe's deadliest blaze this century.
Farther west, containment brought no end to the emergency. France's largest wildfire remained held within its perimeter after forcing 224,000 people to flee in what may have been the country's largest civilian evacuation outside wartime.
Hot spots still burned within a 420 sq km scar, thousands remained unable to return home, and nearly 3000 firefighters were deployed against the Gironde megafire and a second, still-uncontained blaze in Provence.
Together, fires in France and Spain have driven roughly a third of a million people from homes and vacation sites, emptied communities at the height of the European summer and stretched emergency services across simultaneous disasters.
Record fire damage underscores Europe's growing wildfire threat
The mass evacuations in France and Spain are the latest measure of a wildfire threat growing across Europe.
The continent entered 2026 after its worst fire year on record, with more than 10,000 sq km burned in 2025. Over the past four decades, wildfires have been linked to nearly 800 deaths across much of Europe, according to the European Environment Agency.
Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent. It has warmed more than twice the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Human-caused climate change made the extreme fire-weather conditions behind this year's French blazes at least twice as likely, scientists at World Weather Attribution found in a rapid analysis conducted while the fires were still burning.
Gale-force winds cripple aerial assault near Athens
Nearly 500 firefighters and 23 aircraft were deployed, but gale-force winds drove flames through dry forest and crippled the response, preventing some aircraft from reaching the sea to collect water.
Authorities ordered the evacuation of Kandili, Agia Skepi and Toutouli as smoke rose over the mountains. Crews were particularly concerned about Porto Germeno, a seaside community on the Gulf of Corinth.
The fire began Friday near Agios Vasileios before sweeping toward Porto Germeno and into the forested mountains west of Athens. Firefighters evacuated 254 people by sea Friday and another 12 Saturday — often the last escape route when fire and smoke cut the few roads from coastal communities.
Wildfire meteorologist Theodore Giannaros estimated the blaze had affected 40 to 50 sq km though authorities had issued no official figure.
Elsewhere in Greece, flames threatened homes on Kefalonia, forcing evacuations from inland communities as aircraft made water drops over the Ionian island. Firefighters battled another blaze near Nea Tenedos on the peninsula of Halkidiki.
Earlier this week, two firefighters died fighting a fire on Crete, while a third was killed on the Peloponnese.
"A pristine forest, a paradise, was surrendered to the hands of the fire," local farmer Minas Tzortzanis said Saturday. "There are no words to explain what has happened. Destruction. Total destruction."
Spain's deadly fire siege eases
Spain's major fires — which have killed at least 13 people, produced the country's largest recorded wildfire and prompted a national emergency — were no longer advancing on Sunday.
In Zamora province near the Portuguese border, more than 20 ground and aerial units guarded the perimeter of the Fermoselle fire against flare-ups in the rugged Arribes del Duero landscape. Most evacuees had returned home, according to local media.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called for a national pact to confront wildfires, warning that climate change is making them increasingly destructive.
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