Full Breakdown
Europe’s Wildfires Unearth and Detonate Unexploded WWII and Cold-War Munitions
8/10/2026, 5:47:53 AM
Wildfires Trigger Explosive Hazards
In July, a wildfire in the Müritz National Park of north-eastern Germany forced bomb-disposal teams to work alongside firefighters because the forest floor is littered with Cold-War-era munitions. Crews could not approach parts of the blaze for fear of detonations. A later fire in the Gironde region of south-western France burned through fields near the village of Le Porge, exposing a forgotten cache of World-War-II shells. Officials recovered at least 75 shells, several of which detonated during the fire; one projectile pierced the wall of an evacuated house. The local mayor, Martial Zaninetti, said the municipality had no record that the munitions were present.
Historical Buried Munitions Across Europe
Europe remains saturated with unexploded ordnance from the two world wars and four decades of Cold-War activity. In north-eastern Germany, forests that are now nature reserves and UNESCO World Heritage sites were once Soviet and East-German training grounds. Germany’s ordnance-clearance service, the Munitionsbergungsdienst, tackles the contamination area by area because the scale is too large to clear at once. Northern France and Belgium still experience an annual “iron harvest” of World-War-I shells turned up by farmers each spring, and parts of the “Zone Rouge” near Verdun remain officially uninhabitable more than a century after the 1918 Armistice. The North York Moors in the United Kingdom, used for tank training during World II, contain buried shells in deep peat.
Recent Incidents Illustrating the Risk
The 2025 Langdale Moor fire in North Yorkshire, UK, burned for six weeks; flames burrowing into deep peat set off more than 20 buried World-War-II shells. Similar dynamics were linked to a 2020 arms-depot explosion in Jordan, and to six separate munitions sites that exploded across Iraq during the summers of 2018 and 2019 when ambient temperatures regularly exceeded 45 °C—demonstrating that prolonged heat alone can trigger detonations.
Underlying Drivers: Climate and Land-Use Change
The fires that now intersect buried ordnance are larger, hotter, and longer-lasting than in the past. Consecutive heatwaves, low rainfall, and depleted soil moisture created extreme fire-weather conditions in Spain and France in 2026. Climate change is identified as a key factor: summer days with extreme fire-prone conditions across southern Europe doubled between 1981 and 2025, and projections indicate the trend will continue. Rural abandonment has also allowed vegetation to accumulate, increasing fuel loads that feed extreme wildfires.
Responses and Future Concerns
Authorities are emphasizing the dual threat of climate-driven wildfires and legacy explosives. German officials stress the need for systematic clearance, while French local leaders highlight gaps in records of buried munitions. Experts warn that as fire seasons intensify, the probability of further detonations will rise, underscoring the urgency of integrating explosive-ordnance risk assessments into wildfire management and land-use planning.
