Wildfires know no borders, and European firefighting solidarity is increasingly crossing them too. After Belgium requested emergency reinforcements on Saturday 15 August to tackle the country’s worst wildfire in the century, the EU deployed three helicopters and two water bombing aircraft from around Europe to the Hautes Fagnes. When flames were consuming the forests south of Bordeaux (France) in late July this year, Ukrainian experts in large-scale wildfires, a convoy of Swiss firefighting crews and a Lithuanian command group joined the battle against the blazes, which ended up burning 420 square kilometres of land. Among the forces deployed in the Italian region of Sardinia this summer were a group of Estonian firefighters, half of whom had already been deployed in Spain last year. And forces from Czechia, Moldova and Romania “contributed significantly” to put out the fires around Athens and Thessaloniki in Greece, according to the spokesperson of the Greek Fire Service Ioannis Atropoios.
On the ground, differing approaches, methods, and resource coordination can pose a challenge. "While Estonian firefighters mainly attack fires with hoses, laying kilometres of hose through the forest, in Southern Europe the focus is more on monitoring and scouting where the fire is spreading and where it can actually be stopped,” the spokesperson for the Estonian Rescue Board Kaarel Langemets explained to Estonian broadcaster ERR. From a technical point of view, the host country is responsible for providing hose adaptors so that teams from other countries can connect to the local network.
Estonian firefighters in Sardinia (Italy) in August 2026. Estonian Rescue Service
While working with firefighters from different nationalities, the key is to “focus on the objective” regardless of the method, Commander Arnault Angonin, representative of the French Federation of Fire Brigades, told FranceInfo. Even if those on the ground may not speak the same language, “there isn’t necessarily any interaction between teams of different nationalities during operations. It may happen in the heat of the moment; using basic English and gestures, we manage to make ourselves understood,” Angonin said.
At European level, several mechanisms allow countries to pool resources and assist one another during emergencies. The EU Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM) counts 37 member states, coordinated by the Emergency Response and Coordination Centre (ERCC), in Brussels. Since its establishment in 2001, the ERCC has deployed resources in 880 crisis situations, 64 of them in 2025. Of these, 19 were related to fires; other categories include floods, earthquakes and humanitarian crises.
When an affected country requests assistance, there are two courses of action: other countries can offer their own resources, or the Commission mobilises them from the ‘RescEU’ programme. Receiving countries can then accept or decline the offers, and the ERCC oversees and co-funds the assistance.
Ukrainian firefighters putting out a fire in Bordeaux region (France). SES of Ukraine
Over the past four years, international personnel have also been ‘pre-positioned’ in those countries most prone to wildfires. For example, throughout this summer, 245 firefighters were deployed to Greece from Czechia, France, Moldova and Romania, while Greece itself sent 21 firefighters to France in July and will send another 21 to Cyprus in September.
According to the European Commission, the UCPM “has sufficient resources” to support countries. It is not very common to receive simultaneous requests from multiple states, Commission spokesperson Eva Hrncirová explained to A European Perspective. The ERCC responds to around 100 requests a year for all types of emergencies, eight of which were related to wildfires in 2026. “We’ve had to deal with two large-scale operations in two large countries (in France and Spain in July) and managed to assist both; it has been one of our most extensive deployments,” she said.
However, Hrnčířová admitted that this summer is proving to be a “wake-up call.” The area burnt at the end of July this year exceeded 400,000 hectares in Europe, which already makes 2026 one of the worst years on record for wildfires. “Once the summer is over, we will need to discuss how best to adapt to these situations, and I hope this will be reflected in the next multiannual financial framework (MFF, the EU’s six-year spending plan).”
Between 2021 and 2027, the European Commission has allocated €3.6 billion to emergencies, while drafts of the next budget, due to be approved before the end of the year, suggest that this figure could exceed €10 billion for the upcoming 2028-2034 period.
The extent of the fires in recent months has tested the limits of some countries to deal with these crises on their own. Germany, for example, typically has to deploy police and military helicopters equipped with 5,000-litre water buckets to fight its wildfires. Meanwhile, in countries where specialised aircraft such as Canadairs can be used, these are increasingly in short supply: production of the existing models has ended and the new generation has yet to enter service, reports Bavarian broadcaster BR. Switzerland, which is not a participating state of the EU civil protection mechanism, requested its assistance for the first time this year after the Crans-Montana disaster, where 41 people died in a fire during New Year celebrations. Swiss authorities sought help because they lacked sufficient specialised medical transport and hospital capacity.
From the firefighters’ perspective, there is little doubt about the value of these exchanges with international peers. "We live alongside them for several days, or even several weeks, in theatres of operations that are quite intense,” said Commander Angonin to FranceInfo. “So, inevitably, bonds are formed.” Speaking to ERTNews, Sylvain Cheval, head of the French unit deployed to Athens this summer, emphasised: “Together we are stronger.” The experience in Greece, he explained, has been “very useful” in tackling the fires they face in Corsica, which has similar Mediterranean woodland to Greece.
This kind of learning is one of the advantages highlighted by a 2021 report commissioned by the Swiss government on the pros and cons of joining the UCPM. In 2026, a fire brigade unit from French-speaking Switzerland was deployed in France for the first time. “The firefighters who travelled to the Bordeaux region are not only providing help. They are also gaining valuable experience,” Christine Eriksen, one of the authors of the 2021 report, told Swissinfo. For Eriksen, it’s clear that Switzerland will also face its own fires in the future. “If we gather knowledge now, we will be better prepared for what comes.”
A European Perspective is an editorial collaboration initiative that brings together European public service media. Read more here.
With reporting by BR (Germany), ERR (Estonia), ERT (Greece), Franceinfo (France), LRT (Lithuania), RTBF (Belgium), RTVE (Spain) and Suspilne (Ukraine).
Text: Luis García Fuster
Editing: Alexiane Lerouge
Illustration: Ann-Sophie De Steur
Translation for Polish Radio: Julian Horodyski
An article written by A European Perspective (EBU_AEP), initially published on 17 August 2026, 16:12 (CEST)