Helicopters collide fighting wildfire near Athens as gale-force winds fuel Greece blazes
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20 days · 12 summary articles
Two firefighting helicopters collided Sunday while battling a wildfire in the Psatha area west of Athens, according to Greece’s fire service. Search and rescue teams were immediately mobilized to locate and assist the crews, the service said.
The collision occurred as Greece confronted a worsening wildfire crisis, with flames spreading across multiple fronts amid gale-force winds reaching 100 kilometers per hour. Civil Protection Minister Evangelos Tournas said the winds created "extremely difficult conditions," often preventing aircraft from drawing water or conducting drops due to turbulence. Firefighters on the ground battled blazes in Attica, Boeotia, Fokida and on the island of Cephalonia, where a new front broke out shortly before midnight Saturday.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis described the conditions as "extreme," with winds fueling fires that have destroyed over 12,000 hectares nationwide. In the greater Athens region, flames threatened the western outskirts after scaling a mountain overnight, prompting evacuations in Porto Germeno and other villages. Local authorities reported scores of homes damaged or destroyed. Earlier this week, fires on Crete and Paros affected another 6,000 hectares, and three firefighters died in the line of duty—two in Crete and one in the Peloponnese.
Meanwhile, France’s largest wildfire near Bordeaux remained contained after forcing 224,000 people to evacuate, though active pockets still burned across 420 square kilometers. Nearly 3,000 firefighters were deployed against that blaze and a second, uncontained fire in Provence, which has scorched 1,800 hectares. In Spain, major fires in Zamora and Castellón were largely contained, though new blazes broke out in recent days.
Europe’s wildfire crisis has already displaced roughly a third of a million people from homes and tourist sites this summer. The continent entered 2026 after its worst fire year on record, with more than 10,000 square kilometers burned in 2025, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. Scientists at World Weather Attribution found that human-caused climate change made the extreme fire-weather conditions behind this year’s French blazes at least twice as likely .
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Articles
2 firefighting planes collide midair near AthensTwo firefighting helicopters collided Sunday while battling a wildfire near Athens. Footage showed one helicopter crashing to the ground. #News #France #Athens #Europe
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