The fire broke out Monday in a forest above the village of Bitsch in the upper Wallis region in southern Switzerland. The fire is on the north side of the steep Rhone river valley.
The fire is still "raging" and "intervention forces are fighting tirelessly to bring the flames under control", Wallis police said in a statement.
"To contain and control the fire, five helicopters are engaged alongside a hundred firefighters. The situation is being constantly assessed."
Civilian and military helicopters were involved, with water dropped on the trees.
Four hamlets were evacuated on Monday evening, with 205 people moved out. Most sheltered with local friends and family.
Around 150 residents of Ried-Moerel were allowed to return home on Tuesday.
Police said the blaze has affected around 100 hectares of forest on the mountain slopes, and although it is too early to assess the exact extent of the fire, "some areas of the forest seem to have been spared".
In the coming days, fire crews will be backed up by infra-red cameras able to detect hotspots which can then be targeted.
"There is no evidence that people or animals were affected," police said, while the first reconnaissance flights on Tuesday found that no buildings appear to have been damaged.
Local fire chief Mario Schaller said the fire had "gradually stabilised", Switzerland's ATS news agency reported.
The wind in the valley typically picks up in the afternoons, fanning the flames.
"As long as the smoke has not disappeared, there will be no let-up," said Schaller.
Firefighters expect to have to fight the last of the fire for several days or potentially even weeks.
National broadcaster RTS described it as the worst fire in the region for 12 years.
Police said an investigation had been opened to determine what caused the blaze.
Europe braced for new high temperatures on Tuesday, as relentless heatwaves and wildfires scorched swathes of the Northern Hemisphere.
Wildfire near Athens forces evacuation of seaside resorts
Athens (AFP) July 17, 2023 -
Wildfires broke out near Athens on Monday as a heatwave grips Greece, firefighters said, with 1,200 children evacuated outside a seaside resort.
The first blaze started in Kouvaras, 50 kilometres (30 miles) southeast of Athens.
"It's a difficult fire, the winds are really strong" with gusts reaching up to 60 kilometres (37 miles) per hour," said Yannis Artopios, a firefighters' spokesman.
Greece, along with Italy and Spain, has been gripped by a heatwave since last week, with temperatures reaching 44 degrees Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit) in the centre of the country.
The domestic press agency ANA said a forest fire had also flared in strong winds near the Isthmus of Corinth close to the popular beach town of Loutraki.
"We have saved 1,200 children who were in the holiday camps" threatened by the fires near Loutraki, said the town's mayor, Giorgos Gkionis.
Seven water-bombing aircraft, four helicopters and 150 firemen backed by colleagues from Romania were fighting the flames on two fronts, local media reported.
The blaze burnt quickly through brush and spread south toward the Attica region and the resorts of Lagonissi, Anavyssos and Saronida.
Several homes were burned in the area, according to footage by public broadcaster ERT, and an equestrian centre was evacuated.
Thick smoke blocked traffic on the roads around Kalyvia.
The authorities told residents to leave the area and monks were evacuated from a local monastery.
Artopios said no one had so far been reported trapped by the flames.
In Athens, where the mercury hit 39C on Saturday, the Acropolis, one of Greece's top tourist attractions, closed during the hottest hours for three consecutive days to Sunday.
Temperatures are forecast to drop in Greece some 2C-4C by Wednesday, with a new heatwave to follow from Thursday and local highs of 43C, according to the EMY national weather service.
"We are in the middle of the period of fighting fires and the conditions expected will be particularly difficult and favour forest fires," said Artopios.
Electronic 'noses' help sniff out forest fires in Germany
Eberswalde, Germany (AFP) July 18, 2023 -
Sensors that can sniff out a wildfire minutes after it starts are being trialled in Brandenburg, the German region most hit by forest fires.
In the heart of Eberswalde forest northeast of Berlin, Juergen Mueller coaxed flames out of a fire pit using highly flammable pine branches as kindling.
It doesn't take long before the first wisps of smoke start curling into the air.
The 69-year-old retired forestry expert has come to test a green-and-black device, powered by solar energy, that can detect the gases emitted during the earliest, smouldering phase of a fire.
The devices were created two years ago by the Berlin start-up Dryad Networks, which Mueller co-founded, and come equipped with ultra-sensitive gas sensors developed by German engineering firm Bosch.
Acting like "an electronic nose", Mueller said, the sensors are attached to trees and also monitor temperature, humidity and air pressure.
"In 10, 15 minutes we can detect an incipient fire before it becomes an open fire," he said -- faster than traditional surveillance systems.
- 400 sensors -
With the help of artificial intelligence, the sensor can tell the difference between a nascent wildfire or, for example, the fumes from a passing diesel truck.
At his lab in Eberswalde, Mueller also teaches the device to distinguish between different types of wildfires, by exposing it to the smoke from a range of wood shavings.
By doing this, the sensor learns "what the smoke from a pine or beech forest smells like," he said.
As soon as a fire is detected, the data gets relayed to a cloud-based monitoring system and fire authorities are alerted.
Eberswalde forest has been fitted with around 400 sensors, or one device per hectare (2.5 acres), as part of a pilot project with the municipality to test the early-warning system's reliability.
Dryad Networks said 10 countries including the United States, Greece and Spain are already experimenting with the device.
The company sold around 10,000 of the devices last year. By 2030, it aims to have 120 million installed worldwide.
- Preventing disaster -
Raimund Engel, Brandenburg's forest fire protection officer, sees the sensors as a useful addition to the visual detection method currently used in the state.
From the top of 105 towers, 360-degree rotating cameras scan the surrounding landscape where once human observers kept watch.
At the forest fire centre in Wuensdorf, south of Berlin, Engel closely monitors the images they transmit, and sounds the alarm if he spots danger.
With 521 forest fires recorded in 2022, Brandenburg is Germany's worst affected region.
"Because of climate change" the weather conditions in the forest-rich area are "very similar to some Mediterranean regions", Engel said, "with periods of drought and temperatures that sometimes reach up to 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit)."
Super-early intervention is key to preventing wildfires from raging out of control, he said.
"The faster we detect the fire, the quicker firefighters can be on the scene."
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