Wildfires Force Mass Evacuations Across Three Continents: Canada, Spain, Greece, and Indonesia All Battling Major Blazes This Week

A brutal week for firefighters, worldwide

More than 20,000 people fled their homes in British Columbia's Okanagan Lake region over the weekend as a fast-moving wildfire tore through the area, according to PBS. An 80-year-old woman died trying to escape the blaze, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police confirmed Sunday.

The fire near Summerland, a town of about 12,000, forced residents out in the dark before dawn Saturday. Anette Boulet, who evacuated with her family around 4:30 a.m., described watching "the ridge of fire just coming towards you" as smoke blotted out visibility. She fled to a shelter in Penticton.

The nearby Bald Range fire pushed roughly 8,000 more people out of Peachland. British Columbia declared a state of emergency Saturday, and Canada's minister of emergency management, Eleanor Olszewski, said she approved a federal request to help British Columbia with shelter and accommodations.

Spokane fires cool down, but damage is done

In Washington state, three wildfires that broke out in the Spokane area over a week ago have stopped growing and crews are now in "mop-up operations" near containment lines, according to a release from the incident management team cited by PBS. That's the good news.

The bad news: the fires already damaged or destroyed roughly 920 structures. Laurie Allen, who fled her home in Nine Mile Falls with her husband, dog and two kittens, learned through a friend that her house survived, covered in ash but intact. "I've been here 65 years. It's never happened," she said.

A man has been arrested and charged with intentionally setting the largest of the three Spokane-area fires, PBS reported. At least one of these disasters wasn't nature doing what nature does. It was arson, according to the charge, and someone will now face the legal consequences for it.

Spain's fires refuse to cooperate

Nearly 5,000 miles away, more than 600 Spanish firefighters backed by 26 water-dropping aircraft are struggling to contain a wildfire in Huelva province in southern Spain, according to Euronews. Shifting winds and rough terrain have made it worse, not better.

Antonio Sanz, the Andalusian region's minister for emergencies, didn't sugarcoat it. "We are facing an extremely difficult, complex and dangerous wildfire, with the weather conditions continuing to offer us no respite," he said. "There is no forecast that the fire will be brought under control any time soon. There are still hours and probably days of intense work ahead."

Officials ordered the evacuation of El Madrono, a town of around 300 people, bringing the total number of Spanish evacuees to about 800. Crews are also fighting separate fires in Castellón and Segovia, both rated level two for severity.

Greece isn't faring much better. A new fire broke out Monday in Kouvaras, southeast of Athens, pulling in nearly 200 firefighters before it was brought under control, Euronews reported. Five people, four firefighters and a helicopter pilot, have died in Greek wildfires in recent weeks. A separate blaze west of Athens destroyed dozens of homes in the seaside resort of Porto Germeno. Civil protection forecasts show high wildfire risk across central and southern Greece into Tuesday. Italy isn't spared either: 19 cities are under red alert amid a heatwave driven by a North African high-pressure system.

Indonesia's fires are a different animal

On the other side of the world, close to 50,000 firefighters and disaster personnel are battling wildfires across Indonesia, according to Al Jazeera. Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs, Djamari Chaniago, pointed to intensifying El Nino conditions driving an unusually dry season.

The largest fire is inside Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park in East Java, where about 743 hectares have burned. The park, home to the popular Mount Bromo tourist site, is closed until further notice. No injuries or building evacuations have been reported there, which separates it from the deadlier fires in Canada and Greece.

Nearly 6,000 firefighters are also working fires in Jambi province, where deep peat soil, limited water access and strong winds are slowing them down even with three helicopters in the air. Indonesia's forestry ministry says more than 107,000 hectares burned nationwide between January and June this year, double the total area burned in all of 2023.

Different causes, same strain on resources

These fires aren't one story with one cause. Canada's and Washington's fires involve dry summer conditions and, in at least one case, deliberate arson. Spain and Greece are dealing with sustained European drought and heat. Indonesia's fires trace back to El Nino, a naturally occurring Pacific climate pattern that dries out Southeast Asia during its cycle, according to Al Jazeera, and the same pattern helped make 2023 and 2024 the hottest years on record globally.

Simultaneously, firefighting aircraft, personnel and equipment are stretched thin on three continents at once. Spain's Antonio Sanz warned his crews face days more of work with no relief in the forecast. Greek officials are bracing for high fire risk into Tuesday across most of the Aegean. Whether any of these governments will need to request outside mutual-aid resources, as British Columbia already has from Ottawa, will become clear as the fires continue into the rest of August.