Firefighters fought a large wildfire that burned a nature reserve in eastern Belgium and another on a Greek island near Athens, where two individuals lost their lives on Sunday due to hot and dry weather conditions that have fueled fires across various parts of Europe.

In eastern Belgium, a fire consumed approximately 30 square kilometers in the High Fens (Hautes Fagnes), a significant nature reserve, marking one of the country’s most severe wildfires in recent memory.

Around 600 residents in the nearby towns of Waimes and Bütgenbach, located in Liège province near the German border, were instructed to evacuate on Saturday as winds changed direction and smoke enveloped the area. Tourists were also advised to leave, and a local gymnasium was opened to accommodate evacuees.

Hervé Jamar, the provincial governor of Liège, announced on Sunday that more than 250 emergency responders had been mobilized, including over 100 Belgian and German firefighters, as well as police, military personnel, and civil protection teams. Firefighting helicopters from Belgium’s federal police and the Netherlands also assisted in the operation.

In Greece, the coast guard reported that an elderly couple perished outside their residence on the island of Salamina, located west of Athens, near where the fire originated. Over 500 individuals were evacuated from the island.

The fire erupted during Greece’s peak summer holiday weekend around the Aug. 15 Assumption holiday, a time when many Athenians visit nearby islands such as Salamina, easily accessible from the main port of Piraeus.

Several homes were damaged, and five individuals were transported to a medical center, according to local sources.

Approximately 192 firefighters, 14 aircraft and helicopters, volunteer teams, and municipal water tankers were deployed to combat the blazes. Additionally, coast guard and firefighting vessels were dispatched to the island with contingency plans for potential sea evacuations from threatened coastal regions.

Salamina was under a high wildfire risk alert on Sunday, and the cause of the fires remained unknown.

The ongoing blaze in Belgium has surpassed a 2011 fire that ravaged nearly 14 square kilometers in the same area, previously the country’s most extensive wildfire on record, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System.

Nicolas Yernaux, a spokesperson for the Public Service of Wallonia, noted that conditions were significantly worse this time due to very dry soil.

René Dahmen, chief engineer at the Department of Nature and Forests, stated that the fire was still spreading on Sunday in a challenging-to-access area for firefighting crews.

Interior Minister Bernard Quintin confirmed that firefighters successfully prevented the blaze from advancing westward towards the German town of Monschau. Local authorities in Germany cautioned that the fire was approximately 1.5 kilometers from the border.

Farmers from both Belgium and Germany filled tanker trucks with water from a nearby lake to assist firefighters in combating the fire.

Belgium activated the European Union’s civil protection mechanism to receive support from other nations, with Sweden sending two water-bombing aircraft and three helicopters from the Netherlands and the Czech Republic also being deployed.

The fires come after weeks of unusually hot and dry conditions, complicating efforts to contain the flames in the High Fens, characterized by a mix of heathland and peat bogs.

Belgium experienced another period of intense heat with temperatures reaching around 37 degrees Celsius in some areas on Friday.

In France, officials reported that firefighters managed a wildfire in a pine forest in the southwestern Landes region without any major flare-ups overnight. The total area burned was estimated at 17 square kilometers, and approximately 650 people were evacuated from their homes.

This summer saw the third significant wildfire in the vast pine forests of southwestern France, following two others in late July. In the neighboring Gironde department, a massive wildfire scorched about 420 square kilometers, prompting the evacuation of around 220,000 residents as it neared the Atlantic coast and Bordeaux.

Emergency crews in the United Kingdom battled 14 wildfires in South Wales with military assistance. Although the heat wave was subsiding, authorities warned of high wildfire risks due to ongoing drought conditions.

In the West Midlands, several homes were destroyed by fires earlier in the week as the region experienced its hottest day of the year, with temperatures reaching 38.1 degrees Celsius on Thursday.

In Germany, firefighters made significant progress in containing a wildfire in the Hürtgen Forest, enabling around 2,000 evacuated residents of Gey to return home on Saturday. Officials confirmed on Sunday that the fire was under control, with a cleared perimeter established to prevent further spread.