Successive heat waves fueled wildfires across Croatia, Greece, France, Germany, Spain, Albania, and the United Kingdom in mid-August, scorching roughly 1.2 million acres across the European Union. At least one person died in Omis, Croatia, a coastal tourist town where officials called the blaze “one of the worst in Croatia’s history.”
Authorities evacuated about 2,000 people from Croatian coastal villages and more than 300 vacationers by boat from the Greek seaside town of Siviri. In France’s Landes region, 525 villagers were evacuated from pine forest areas, while in the UK, dozens of homes were destroyed near Stourbridge and thousands fled the West Midlands. Dozens of people were hospitalized, several in serious condition.