2 Firefighting Helicopters Collide in Midair Near Athens as Europe's Wildfire Crisis Grows

Two Greek firefighting helicopters crashed into each other in midair on Sunday while battling a wildfire west of Athens, Greece. One helicopter fell to the ground. All four crew members were found — two were safe, but two were unconscious. The crash happened as strong winds pushed the wildfire deeper into the area around the Greek capital, forcing more people to leave their homes.

The fire in Greece was burning through western Attica, the region that surrounds Athens. It threatened towns and a nearby industrial area outside a city called Megara. Strong winds made it impossible for some aircraft to fly low enough over the sea to scoop up water for firefighting. This part of Greece has a painful history with wildfires. In 2018, a fire in a town called Mati killed 104 people — the deadliest wildfire in Europe this century.

The fire started on Friday near a village called Agios Vasileios. It then spread toward a seaside town called Porto Germeno and into the forested mountains west of Athens. Firefighters had to rescue 254 people by boat on Friday and 12 more on Saturday. Boats were often the only way out because fire and smoke blocked the roads leading away from coastal communities. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was kept informed about the emergency response.

A wildfire expert estimated the Greek fire had burned through 40 to 50 square kilometers of land — about the size of a small city. Firefighters were also dealing with other fires around Greece, including one that threatened homes on the island of Kefalonia. Earlier in the week, two firefighters died while battling a blaze on Crete, and a third was killed in the Peloponnese region. A local farmer named Minas Tzortzanis described the scene by saying, "A pristine forest, a paradise, was surrendered to the hands of the fire. Destruction. Total destruction."

In southwestern France, a massive wildfire called the Gironde megafire was no longer spreading, but it had not been put out. It had burned through 420 square kilometers — about four times the size of Paris — in just 10 days. Nearly 224,000 people had been forced to leave their homes in what may have been France's largest evacuation outside of wartime. Close to 3,000 firefighters were working to keep the fire inside its perimeter and prevent it from growing again.

Inside the burned area, fires were still smoldering in spots. The region near Bordeaux was under France's highest fire danger alert, and hot temperatures and afternoon winds could cause the fire to spread again. In a town called Le Porge, about 150 homes were destroyed. A mechanic named Matthieu Plessis returned to the ruins of a home that had been in his family for seven generations. "There are places I don't even recognize anymore," he said. "You don't even know what was here anymore, or who lived where."

Also in France, a second fire in the southeastern Var department burned about 18 square kilometers in just over a day. Nearly 1,500 firefighters worked to stop it from spreading further, and about 2,500 people were evacuated from nearby communities. Actor George Clooney and his family were among about 700 people forced to evacuate because of a smaller nearby fire earlier in the week. French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the fires were mostly under control but warned the situation could still change quickly.

In Spain, the major wildfires were no longer growing by Sunday, though it had already been a deadly season with at least 13 people killed. More than 20 firefighting teams stood watch over one fire perimeter in Zamora province to stop any flare-ups. Most evacuees from that region were allowed to go back home. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called for a national plan to deal with wildfires, warning that climate change is making them more destructive every year.

Scientists say Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent, having warmed more than twice the global average since the 1980s. The continent just came off its worst fire year on record, with more than 10,000 square kilometers burned in 2025 alone. Scientists found that climate change made the dangerous fire conditions behind France's blazes at least twice as likely to occur. Altogether, fires across France and Spain forced about 300,000 people from their homes, stretching emergency services across multiple countries at once.