By David Bruce

Wildfires continue to rage across south-eastern Europe in the midst of a prolonged heatwave.

The wildfires in Greece were marked with the downing of helicopter into the sea off Elefsina, west of Athens, six days ago. The Sikorsky S-64E Skycrane “Delilah” appeared to be collecting water when it all went wrong. All crew are reported safe and the damaged aircraft was recovered.

This is how it is meant to work. Here is the sea snorkel in action courtesy of Erickon, who have a long association with supporting aerial firefighting in Greece, among many other places, with the S64E:

Modis Web (NASA) reports that the summer of soaring temperatures and drought set the stage for abundant wildfires across Eastern Europe in late July 2025. There were 5 active wildfires in Macedonia and 11 burning in Albania, with temperatures near at or near 40°C (104°F) registering in those countries as well as Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Greece.

Firefighters are battling five fires on Sunday across the Greek islands of Evia, Kythira and Crete, as well as in the Peloponnese area, west of Athens, as temperatures reached highs of 40C.

On July 25, a severe wildfire near Delvinia, Albania caused the evacuation of more than 2,000 people, according to local news. Three individuals were injured with burns and smoke inhalation injuries. On July 27, Zoom Earth advised that the largest fire in Albania had scorched 17,997 acres. A second large fire covered more than 2,900 acres while the largest fire burned on 23,225 acres.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this true-color image of wildfires and smoke across Albania on July 24. Actively burning fires are marked by red “hot spots” and gray smoke. The largest wildfire at the time of this image was the one near Delvinia, in southern Albania.