Europe Faces Widespread Wildfires as Heatwave Forces Mass Evacuations

Overview

• The EU Copernicus climate service issued a forecast of “extremely severe” fire‑weather across large parts of Europe that is expected to persist through Aug. 19, raising the risk of more simultaneous blazes.
• A fast‑moving wildfire in a Croatian tourist town killed one person, injured about 40 and led to the evacuation of roughly 1,200 residents and visitors, officials said on Friday.
• More than 300 people were evacuated by boat from the coastal town of Siviri in northern Greece after fires threatened homes and holiday resorts, the Greek Coast Guard reported.
• A major blaze in Huelva, Spain, has burned about 31,000 hectares and forced around 700 people from their homes while emergency teams began removing historic relics from a monastery that the flames threatened.
• Scientists and analysts link the record heat and prolonged drought to climate change and warn the heat could sharply cut crop yields in parts of Europe, widen economic damage and prolong the strain on firefighting resources such as aircraft that have logged unusually high flight hours this season.