Cross‑border wildfire smoke intensifies as climate‑driven blazes surge across Europe

By&nbspDenis Loktev

Published on 25/07/2026 – 7:02 GMT+2

A national emergency has been declared in Spain, thousands have been forced to flee in France, and tens of thousands of hectares have been scorched in Italy. Wildfires are burning more frequently and with greater intensity as the climate continues to change.

The threat does not end when the flames are extinguished. Smoke carries black carbon—tiny particles of partly burnt material—that can travel hundreds, even thousands, of kilometres from the fire itself.

“The pollution can blow quite long distances,” says Jane Burston, CEO of the Clean Air Fund, speaking to Euronews Earth. Some particles are small enough to pass through the lungs into the bloodstream. She explains that this can trigger asthma in the short term and, over years, lead to lung cancer, heart attacks, strokes and even dementia.

Burston cited Canada’s record 2023 wildfire season as a stark example: an estimated 82,000 people died from the resulting toxins and pollution across Canada, the United States and Europe, long after the fires themselves had stopped burning.

Wildfire smoke is an underestimated danger

Recent research backs her concerns. A study published in The Lancet Planetary Health, covering 32 European countries, found that mortality linked to wildfire smoke may be underestimated by 93 percent because fire‑related fine particles appear more harmful than pollution from other sources.

Separately, U.S. researchers reported that global wildfire emissions of health‑harming gases may be about 21 percent higher than earlier estimates suggested.

Burston says that drought combined with heatwaves—both intensified by climate change—is creating conditions for fires to spread rapidly. “We’re going to expect a longer and more intense wildfire season every year,” she tells Euronews Earth.

Breaking the ‘vicious circle’ of climate change, wildfires and air pollution

Burston describes air pollution, climate change and wildfires as a self‑reinforcing loop: pollutants released alongside greenhouse gases when humans burn fossil fuels raise temperatures, fuelling more wildfires, which in turn produce more pollution.

“We really need to tackle other causes of air pollution as well as the wildfires,” she says, noting that cutting pollution also saves money for health systems and boosts productivity.

She calls for stronger early warning systems, noting that some regions in Latin America already use air‑quality monitors to detect fires before they are spotted visually.

Governments, she adds, need to pair forecasting with clear guidance on when people should stay indoors, use air purifiers or evacuate.

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