ATHENS — Two Greek firefighting helicopters collided in midair Sunday as they were battling a wind-driven wildfire west of Athens, sending one aircraft crashing to the ground, video showed. Two crew members died in the crash.Those killed were identified as one Greek and one Danish national, while two other crew members, one Greek and one British, were recovered alive.The collision laid bare the danger at the most volatile front of Europe’s wildfire emergency. Strong winds drove flames deeper into the Athens region and forced fresh evacuations, France guarded a still-burning scar four times the size of Paris, while Spain’s major fires stopped advancing.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.Flames spread through western Attica, the region around Athens, threatening communities and an industrial district outside Megara as violent gusts prevented firefighting aircraft from collecting water from the sea. The danger carried 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 162-square-mile scar, thousands remained unable to return home, and nearly 3,000 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 damageThe 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 3,860 square miles burned in 2025. Over the last 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.Winds cripple aerial firefightingNearly 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. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was briefed on the operation.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 12 more 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 15 to 19 square miles, 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 in Halkidiki.Last week, two firefighters died fighting a fire on Crete and a third was killed in 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.”France guards against renewed flamesIn southwestern France, the Gironde megafire remained held within its perimeter Sunday but continued to burn after scorching 162 square miles of forest in 10 days.“The fire is now fixed, which does not mean that the fire is extinguished,” the Gironde prefecture said, using the French firefighting term for a blaze whose advance has been stopped.The region remained under a “red” forest-fire alert, France’s highest. Dry conditions, soaring temperatures around Bordeaux and afternoon winds threatened to rekindle the flames.In Le Porge, local officials said about 150 homes were destroyed. Mechanic Matthieu Plessis returned Saturday to the ruins of a house 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.”Firefighters from Ukraine, Lithuania and French Polynesia were expected Sunday and Monday to reinforce the operation.Provence fire remains uncontainedIn southeastern France, nearly 1,500 firefighters battled a separate blaze in the Var department that tore through about seven square miles in little more than a day.The Gros Bessillon fire was stabilized Sunday after its perimeter held overnight, but it remained uncontained. Some 2,500 people were evacuated as flames threatened nearby communities.It was the fourth major fire to strike central Var since July 19. A smaller blaze near Brignoles days earlier forced actor George Clooney and his family, along with about 700 other residents, to evacuate before it was brought under control.Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said France’s fires were generally under control but warned that conditions remained volatile. He appointed a national coordinator to oversee reconstruction in fire-ravaged areas.More than 452 square miles have burned across France this year.Spain’s fire siege easesSpain’s major fires — part of a season that has killed at least 13 people, produced the country’s largest recorded wildfire and prompted a national emergency — were no longer advancing 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.Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has called for a national pact to confront wildfires, warning that climate change is making them increasingly destructive.Becatoros and Adamson write for the Associated Press. Adamson reported from Paris. AP writers Nicolas Garriga in Lacanau, France; Michael Varaklas in Megara, Greece; and Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.
