Wildfires force thousands to flee as blazes spread across Europe

Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate across Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Croatia and Greece due to intense wildfires that have torn through villages and woodlands.

The blazes follow successive heatwaves this year that have scorched approximately 500,000 hectares (1.24 million acres) of land across the European Union.

In Croatia, strong winds drove a wildfire into parts of the tourist town of Omis on Friday, enveloping settlements and forest areas while damaging buildings and cars. Authorities said on Friday that they found the remains of one charred body in the burned-out area of the town.

Another 40 people were treated at a nearby hospital in Split, with at least seven in serious condition. In total, some 2,000 people were evacuated from villages near Croatia’s coast.

Croatia’s fire chief, Slavko Tucakovic, described the blaze as “one of the worst in Croatia’s history”.

“It was frightening even to watch. Many houses, cafes, restaurants, cars, and boats that were on dry land were damaged,” he told national radio.

During a visit to the area, Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic stressed the dangers of the fire and praised the efforts of the firefighters.

“This fire spread at lightning speed,” he told reporters. “What the firefighters managed to save is truly a miracle.”

Evacuations in Germany, England, France, Greece

After the UK recorded its hottest day of the year on Thursday, firefighters spent Friday tackling fires across the West Midlands, in central England, that led to thousands of emergency calls and forced people to flee from burning homes. Nineteen people were hospitalised, the ambulance service said.

In the town of Stourbridge, where a huge blaze started on Thursday, TV footage showed fires consuming houses, with many left without roofs as flames burned inside the charred walls. About 20 to 30 homes were completely destroyed, Stourbridge MP Cat Eccles told the BBC.

A woman who was evacuated from her home in Stourbridge said police knocked on her door and urged her to leave immediately.

“They thought the fire was changing directions, and they didn’t know which direction it was going in,” Jane Baxter told BBC Radio. “So, it was literally ‘grab what you need and get out.’”

Prime Minister Andy Burnham warned Britons on Friday that they must “face up to the changing climate” and pointed to the need for more clean energy. He also described the country as a “tinderbox”, warning against the lighting of outdoor fires.

Meanwhile, in western Germany, authorities ordered about 1,800 people to evacuate after a wildfire spread towards the village of Gey, near the border with Belgium.

In southwestern France, 525 villagers fled a blaze in the pine woods of the Landes region, an area already hit by major fires this year.

The fire has razed 1,100 hectares (2,700 acres) since starting on Thursday, reaching within two kilometres (1.2 miles) of the centre of Luglon village, regional official Gilles Clavreul told reporters.

“The situation is unfavourable,” Clavreul said, adding that 500 firefighters and six aircraft were tackling the flames.

A spreading wildfire in Spain’s northeastern Aragon region forced authorities to remove the remains of the three 11th-century kings from a monastery threatened by the blaze.

In northern Greece, people wearing face masks, some clutching children or pets, boarded dinghies and boats in the seaside town of Siviri as the fire ate through a forest and columns of smoke turned the cloudless sky a dark grey.

The coastguard said that more than 300 people had been evacuated by boat from the town, ⁠which sits on a picturesque peninsula of woodland, olive groves and beaches south of Greece’s second ⁠city, Thessaloniki.

Scientists link the hot weather and severe drought driving the fires across Europe to climate change. Heatwaves have particularly affected France, Spain, Greece and the Balkans this year.