Wildfires Expose - and Detonate - Buried Bombs From WWI and WWII

The wildfires burning across Europe this summer have exposed a potentially deadly threat lurking beneath the blackened landscape: rusty bombs and mines from World War I and II that threaten crews responding to the flames.

Fires can ignite old munitions and also burn away the scrub and brush that hides them.

The wildfires burning across Europe this summer have revealed World War I and II ordnance lurking beneath the blackened landscape.

Droughts across Europe have also been churning up military vehicles and weapons from the era, with shrinking rivers revealing German warships, a Wehrmacht motorbike, and a bomb.

Some of the weapons have exploded in the intense heat. Blasts have been reported in France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands, where a bomb-disposal team was dispatched to check a forest threatened by flames near a site of fierce fighting in the Limburg province in 1944.

Members of a bomb disposal unit sit next to 1.8 ton World War II bomb after defusing it in Frankfurt, Germany, in 2017 (Picture: AP) Emergency crews battling wildfires across Europe have exposed a potentially deadly threat lurking beneath the scorched surface – rusty old wartime bombs and mines. The intense heat has al

The scorched landscapes have exposed a potentially lethal threat lurking underground

The wildfires burning across Europe this summer have exposed a potentially deadly threat lurking beneath the blackened landscape: rusty bombs and mines from World War I and II

Wildfires expose — and detonate — buried bombs and mines from WWI and WWII  AP News

Wildfires expose - and detonate - buried bombs and mines from WWI and WWII  Toronto Star