European wildfires expose, detonate buried bombs and mines from past wars

Uncovering the Past: European Wildfires Expose Buried Bombs and Mines

The current wildfire season in Europe has exposed a potentially deadly threat lurking beneath the blackened landscape: rusty bombs and mines from World War I and II. The intense heat from the blazes has triggered the explosives, removing control from the equation. This phenomenon is not unique to the current season; drought has shrunk Europe's rivers and lakes to reveal munitions that were once invisible.

In the eastern Belgian province of Liege, Gov. Hervé Jamar said "a few sporadic detonations" were recently heard, and emergency services were adapting to account for munitions buried in a fire area. He said no fire crews were in danger, but local media published photos of a firefighter handling a rusted bomb. During World War II, booby traps, bombs, and mines were scattered throughout the province's dense peat-bog forest known as the High Fens, which stretches across Belgium's border with Germany and was the site of key conflicts, including the bloody Battle of the Bulge.

Bernard Collard, a local historian who is authorized to scan the former battlefields with a metal detector, said that in an environment like this, "you are not sure where the explosives are." He said he has found mortar shells, machine guns, helmets, cigarette cases, and once, a human skeleton. His father once detonated a found bomb in a quarry. "You never know what you might come across, and you shouldn't take it lightly," Collard said while standing in a field that was once a blood-soaked site.

In a forest in tinder-dry France, a massive wildfire outside the southwestern city of Bordeaux uncovered a cache of what is believed to be World War II-era ammunition. Around 400 shells and pieces of ammunition were recovered in the village of Le Porge earlier in August. The munitions, both German and French, consist mainly of mortar shells, along with some high-explosive anti-tank shells. Fire commander Thomas Mimiague said blasts heard during the blaze may have been shells exploding. Mayor Martial Zaninetti told French news outlet France Info the blasts were similar to "the sound of war." "There were ammunition depots buried in land within our municipality, but we didn't know it, and they exploded," Zaninetti told France Info, adding that one of the munitions "went through a house." Over 180 homes were destroyed by the fire, local authorities said.

Finding unexploded ordnance in Europe isn't unusual. A 1,000-pound aerial bomb used by Allied forces during World War II was removed from a construction site in Belgrade, Serbia, in December. In September 2025, researchers found unexploded Nazi bombs sitting at the bottom of a German bay had become a home for marine life. Sometimes the discoveries, like the fires, spark mass evacuations. Thousands had to leave their homes in Dresden, Germany, after an unexploded bomb was found in the southern city in August 2025. Traffic at France's bustling Gare du Nord train station had to be halted in March 2025 after an unexploded bomb was found near tracks.

Every year across the nation, Belgium's Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Destruction Service responds to more than 3,000 calls and disposes of 200 to 250 tons of munitions left over from both world wars. In Ypres, a town infamous for harrowing trench warfare in World War I, some farmers call the annual tilling of the soil "the iron harvest" because it turns up so many war remnants. World War I shells, including suspect gas shells, piled in a warehouse at the explosive disposal facility in Poelkapelle, Belgium.

Typically, the bombs are carefully handled and either defused or intentionally, precisely detonated. But wildfire heat can trigger the explosives, removing control from the equation. Wildfire also isn't the only weather phenomenon revealing old weaponry. Drought has shrunk Europe's rivers and lakes to reveal munitions that were once invisible. In Slovakia, the Danube River fell and exposed two naval mines that police pulled out of the water and buried in a trench for a controlled demolition. Authorities in Hungary closed Budapest's Margaret Bridge after a bomb dating from World War II emerged at its base in receding water. As the Rhine dried up, German authorities also found a WWII-era bomb.

Christina Greene, a researcher at the University of Arizona who, with Njeri, wrote an article on Europe's war remnants, said that the current situation shows that Europe's "climatic luck" is running out. "Climate change is now doing the work of unburying and reactivating what was previously stable," Greene said.