Wildfires across Europe expose and ignite unexploded ordnance from World Wars

Wildfires burning across Europe this summer have uncovered and, in some cases, detonated unexploded bombs and mines left from the First and Second World Wars.

Explosions have been reported in France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. In Belgium’s High Fens nature park, a large fire in peat beds produced sporadic detonations as heat reached buried munitions from the Battle of the Bulge and earlier fighting.

Liège province Governor Hervé Jamar said emergency services are adjusting operations to account for the risk. Belgium’s ordnance disposal service already receives more than 3,000 calls a year for historical munitions.

Near Bordeaux in southwestern France, a wildfire exposed a cache of Second World War ammunition. At least 75 shells were recovered; several detonated during the fire, and one projectile struck a house that had been evacuated.

Drought and low river levels have also revealed wartime wrecks and mines. In Slovakia, naval mines appeared in the Danube and were removed for controlled demolition. Hulls of German vessels from the Second World War became visible in the same river system.

Researchers note that climate-driven heat and drought are unburying material that had remained stable for decades. Corrosion has made some fuses more sensitive. Firefighters now treat certain forests as potential explosive zones.

The problem is concentrated in former battlefields and training areas. In Germany, former Soviet and East German ranges that are now nature reserves have produced similar incidents.

Authorities stress that the immediate risk is localised and that disposal teams are responding. The longer-term issue is the volume of material still in the ground across the continent.