Skip to main content
Aug 11, 2021 - Energy & Environment

In photos: Where wildfires are blazing around the world

Ivana Saric
firefighters use a water hose to extinguish the burning blaze of a forest fire

Firefighters use a water hose to extinguish the burning blaze of a forest fire in the village of Glatsona on Evia (Euboea) island, on Aug. 9. Photo: Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP via Getty Images

Wildfires raging around the world this week have forced thousands of people to evacuate as flames raze homes and burn across hundreds of thousands of acres of land.

Why it matters: Record heat waves propelled by human-caused climate change have triggered many of the fires burning across the U.S. West, Canada, Russia, Greece, Turkey, Algeria and Italy. A new climate report from the UN's IPCC concludes that human influence on the climate system "is now an established fact."

Greece
A volunteers holds a water hose near a burning blaze
A volunteers holds a water hose near a burning blaze as he tries to extinguish a fire in the village of Glatsona on Evia (Euboea) island, on Aug. 9. The IPCC report concluded human activities are making extreme weather and climate events more common and severe — including droughts, heat waves, and wildfires. Photo: Angelos Tzortzinis/AFP via Getty Images

What's happening: Dozens of wildfires broke out in Greece last week after the country suffered its worst heat wave in decades.

  • Firefighters are facing extremely dry conditions. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called the situation a "nightmarish summer."
U.S. West
A home and garage destroyed by the Dixie Fire
A home and garage destroyed by the Dixie Fire sits on the roadside on Aug. 9 near Greenville, California. Photo: Maranie R. Staab/Getty Images

What's happening: 108 large fires or complexes are burning in 15 U.S. western states. Many of these states are in a climate-related drought.

  • The largest burning in the U.S. is California's Dixie Fire — the second-biggest wildfire in the state's history. Thousands of residents have been evacuated as the blaze has razed nearly 500,000 acres.
Algeria
A house burns during a wildfire
A house burns during a wildfire in Tizi Ouzou, one of the most populous cities in Algeria's Kabylie region, on Aug. 10. Photo: Ryad Kramdi/AFP via Getty Images

What's happening: Wildfires in Algeria's north have killed 42 people, including 25 soldiers who helped evacuate residents.

  • Dozens of fires broke out in the remote Kabyle region and elsewhere on Monday.
Russia
Silhouetted firefighters against a blaze
Extinguishing works continue for the wildfire in the village of Kuel in Yakutia, Sakha, Russia on Aug. 8. Photo: Ivan Nikiforov/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

What's happening: Intense wildfires burning across Siberia's Sakha Republic have been active for months.

Canada
Wildfire smoke shrouds Vancouver, Canada, Aug. 1.
Wildfire smoke shrouds Vancouver, Canada, Aug. 1. Photo: Liang Sen/Xinhua via Getty Images

What's happening: Firefighters have been battling dozens of massive wildfires in British Columbia since early last month following a deadly heat wave.

  • The Canadian province surpassed its 10-year wildfire average by 87% as thousands remained under evacuation notices on Tuesday, CBC notes.
Turkey
burned road and facilities after a wildfire raged in Milas, Mugla province, Turkey.
Burned facilities after a wildfire raged in Milas, Mugla province, Turkey, on Aug. 9. Photo: Xinhua via Getty Images

What's happening: More than 100 blazes broke out in Turkey at the start of the month, forcing thousands of people to evacuate.

  • At least eight people have died as the fires ripped through tourist resorts this weel, per the BBC.
Italy
Fires in Sicily's Etna regional park on August 05
A wildfire in Sicily's Etna regional park has triggered a large deployment of both ground and air forces to combat the blaze that's fueled by the wind on Aug. 5. Photo: Salvatore Allegra/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

What's happening: Wildfires have been raging across southern Italy since last month, with many regions under evacuation orders.

  • The islands of Sicily and Sardinia have been among the hardest hit.
Go deeper