Severe Heatwave Triggers Massive and Dangerous Wildfires Across Europe

Firefighters across France and in central England struggled against multiple fires Friday as a new wave of record-breaking heat baked a swath of Europe, their task further complicated by exceptionally parched landscapes.

With France experiencing its driest year ever, a new fire raced through woodlands overnight in the Landes region on the southwest coast. The blaze forced more than 500 people to evacuate their homes in the town of Luglon as hundreds of firefighters deployed to the area, the regional administration said Friday. It’s one of several fires scorching forests around France this week, including in normally cooler and wetter regions in the north and Brittany. A historic fire devoured forests near Bordeaux last month and pushed a quarter of a million people from their homes.

Meanwhile, efforts to contain a wildfire in Germany were complicated by unexploded World War II munitions, and shifting winds in Croatia spread flames deeper into a coastal suburb and forced more than 1,000 people to flee. After the UK recorded its hottest day of the year on Thursday, wildfires raced across the West Midlands and saw several houses burned to the ground. They have been “one of the most significant” incidents the region’s fire service has ever dealt with, chief fire officer Simon Tuhill said.

Some 1,017 wildfires have been recorded in England and Wales this year, according to data from the National Fire Chiefs Council. The fires came on the hottest day of the year, when temperatures reached 38.1 degrees Celsius in west London. In France, temperatures Thursday approached 41 C in several areas, from Aquitaine in the southwest to the Rhone River valley in the east, according to the national weather service.

In Germany, all 1,800 residents of the village of Gey in North Rhine-Westphalia state were evacuated after a wildfire in the nearby Hürtgen forest threatened to reach their homes. Nearly 300 hectares of forest were ablaze on Friday morning, local authorities said. Unexploded ordnance from World War II in the forest hampered firefighting efforts, German news agency dpa reported. Explosions could be heard as the munitions detonated during the fire, forcing firefighters to stay out of the area for safety.

In Croatia, 14 people were hospitalized, of whom seven remained in life-threatening condition early Friday from a fire that raged overnight by the coastal town of Omis and forced more than 1,000 people to evacuate their homes. Public broadcaster HRT said the blaze came close to the town’s center, and parts of Omis were left without electricity while many cars were burned.

Albania has been battling dozens of wildfires in recent weeks, with 11 active fires reported across the country Friday. The largest fire is in the Gure-Lure area, where the perimeter near residential homes has been brought under control. Meanwhile, in northern Greece, more than 300 vacationers and residents were evacuated by sea Thursday after a wildfire swept through a pine forest and threatened seaside homes, authorities said.