Europe’s wildfires have raised the danger posed by unexploded WWII bombs

When a wildfire broke out in the Müritz National Park of north-eastern Germany in July, it was no routine firefighting job. Bomb disposal teams had to work alongside firefighters because the forest floor is contaminated with cold war-era munitions. Crews could not approach parts of the blaze directly for fear of detonations. Soon after, a wildfire tore through 42,000 hectares of the Gironde region in south-western France. As it burned through fields near the village of Le Porge, the fire…