The extreme heat wave scorching Europe is not just drying out forests; it is reactivating a buried, forgotten danger. In France, Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands, high temperatures have triggered explosions of inert bombs and mines dating back to World War I and II. For emergency crews fighting wildfires, the risk is no longer just fire but also unexploded ordnance emerging from scorched earth.

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Heat as a Detonator

According to Sarah Njeri, a peace and conflict scholar at London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, climate change is now "unburying and reactivating" weapons that were previously stable. Fires not only expose munitions hidden by vegetation but the intense heat can directly trigger explosives. In a forest near Bordeaux, France, a wildfire uncovered a cache of World War II-era ammunition; in Belgium’s Liege province, "sporadic detonations" were heard as firefighters operated in affected areas.

A Lethal Legacy Resurfacing

The situation is compounded by drought, which has lowered river and lake levels. In Slovakia, the Danube exposed two naval mines; in Hungary, an old bomb emerged at the base of Budapest’s Margaret Bridge. In Belgium, the Explosive Ordnance Disposal and Destruction Service responds to over 3,000 calls annually, disposing of 200 to 250 tonnes of war remnants. As local historian Bernard Collard, who scans old battlefields with a metal detector, notes: "You never know what you might come across, and you shouldn’t take it lightly."

The New Climatic Normality

A World Weather Attribution study published in July highlights how heavy January rains fueled vegetation growth, which turned to kindling with summer heat. Combined with drought, low humidity, and stiff winds, conditions became optimal for fire. Christina Greene, a researcher at the University of Arizona, warns that "the legacy of war keeps creeping up" due to climate change, forcing Europe to confront its wartime past in ways it had not dealt with for a while.