The fire in Croatia spread rapidly on Thursday evening through forested areas and vegetation before the flames began moving towards residential areas in several smaller towns around the coastal town of Omis. Several houses and vehicles have been destroyed.
At least 42 people are reported to have been injured, ten of whom are in intensive care, reports the newspaper Jutarnji List . Between 900 and 1,000 hectares of land had burned by Friday morning, but since then more fires have started in the area.
Several hundred people have been forced to leave the small tourist resort of Lokva Rogoznica. In total, more than 2,000 people have fled or been evacuated from the fire area and have been housed in, among other places, a sports hall in Omis.
Croatia has been hit by several forest fires this summer, with the heatwave sweeping across Europe bringing record temperatures to several locations along the Adriatic in recent days. Split, just north of Omis, had a temperature of 39.7 degrees Celsius this week, according to the AFP news agency.
Germany: Record-breaking fire
In Germany, too, the heat and drought have caused fires. In the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), it was 38 degrees Celsius on Friday in Cologne, among other places, and just over 40 kilometers southwest of the city, a fire of over 300 hectares is raging - according to the public service company WDR, the largest fire in NRW's history.
Around 2,000 people have been forced to flee their homes due to the forest fire, according to local authorities. Helicopters and military equipment have been deployed to fight the blazes in the Eifel National Park in Hürtgenwald near the border with Belgium and the Netherlands.
500 evacuated in France
Fires in southwestern France have forced the evacuation of more than 500 people.
The fires broke out in the Landes department on Thursday, as large parts of the country are in the midst of a heatwave. The flames have burned about 1,100 hectares of land, but no homes have been destroyed, according to authorities.
During the summer, southwestern France has been ravaged by forest fires that have spread rapidly due to extremely dry conditions. The fires have been exacerbated by repeated heat waves.
