Two wildfires ignited within minutes of each other on the Greek island of Salamina on Sunday, August 16, 2026, killing two people, injuring at least ten, and forcing the evacuation of hundreds during one of the busiest days of the summer calendar.
The first blaze began at around 2:40 p.m. local time near the island's southern coast at Peristeria. A second fire followed roughly 20 minutes later in the eastern town of Selinia, according to reports. Strong winds accelerated the spread of both blazes.
Firefighters recovered two bodies from the Peristeria beach area in the south of the island. The mayor of Salamina told Greek media the victims were believed to have been a couple, reports indicated. Their identities had not been released at the time of reporting.
At least ten people suffered burns or smoke inhalation symptoms. Five were taken to local medical facilities for treatment, Greek Health Minister Adonis Georgiades said, according to reports.
The civil protection ministry issued four evacuation orders in quick succession as the fires spread. Around 500 people ultimately left Salamina by sea during the emergency, reports indicated. The response on the ground was substantial: around 200 firefighters, 50 fire engines, firefighting aircraft and helicopters, water tankers, and construction machinery were all deployed, according to reports.
The timing of the fires added to the difficulty of the response. Salamina is home to around 37,000 residents, many of them elderly, and its beaches were crowded with visitors marking the August 15 Assumption holiday — one of the peak days of the Greek summer, LBC reported.
By Sunday evening, one fire had been brought under control and evacuations had been completed. The second fire was reported to have no active front, though firefighters remained deployed to monitor scattered flames, according to reports.
The cause of neither fire had been established. Whether arson, accident, or natural causes were suspected was not known at the time of reporting.
The Salamina fires are part of a wider pattern of severe wildfire activity across Europe this August. Earlier in the month, two firefighting helicopters collided over Greece while battling a separate blaze northwest of Athens that destroyed more than 100 homes; two crew members died in that incident. On the same day as the Salamina fires, Belgium was battling what was described as its largest wildfire in more than a century in the High Fens nature reserve, prompting evacuations of around 600 people near the German border.
Greece has faced repeated and destructive wildfire seasons in recent years, with the combination of summer heat, wind, and dry vegetation creating conditions in which fires can move fast and change direction without warning. The near-simultaneous ignition of two separate fires on Sunday — in different parts of the same island — stretched emergency resources and left investigators with questions about the origin of both blazes that remained unanswered as night fell.
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