European wildfires expose, detonate buried explosives from past wars

Summer wildfires in Europe have unearthed and detonated explosives from World War I and II, posing a significant danger to emergency responders. Blasts have been reported in France, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands, where a bomb-disposal team responded to flames near a site of intense fighting in Limburg province in 1944. Steady temperatures and predictable rainfall in the past ensured that most buried weapons remained dormant, but this year's wildfire season was exacerbated by heavy January rains that spurred vegetation growth and later turned into kindling in the summer heat.

The combination of high temperatures, low humidity, and strong winds created ideal conditions for fires, according to a study by the World Weather Attribution group. The ongoing situation highlights that Europe's climate luck is running out, as climate change is now unburying and reactivating previously stable explosives. In eastern Belgian province of Liege, sporadic detonations were recently heard, and emergency services adapted to account for munitions buried in the fire area.

A local historian found mortar shells, machine guns, helmets, and even a human skeleton in the High Fens forest, which was the site of key conflicts during World War II. In France, a massive wildfire outside Bordeaux uncovered what is believed to be World War II-era ammunition, leading to the destruction of over 180 homes. Similar incidents have occurred in other countries, such as Serbia and Germany, where unexploded ordnance has sparked mass evacuations and halted traffic.

While bomb disposal teams typically handle and either defuse or intentionally detonate the weapons, the intense heat of wildfires removes this control, making the situation more dangerous. Climate change, as highlighted by researchers Christina Greene and Sarah Njeri, is reliving the legacies of war and conflict in ways that have not been faced for a while in certain regions, as the legacy of war keeps creeping up due to climate change.