Wildfires in Europe forced thousands to flee their homes

Thousands of people were forced to evacuate across Germany, France, Croatia and Greece on August 14, 2026, as wildfires spread across western and southeastern Europe, Al Jazeera reported.

In Croatia, strong winds drove a wildfire into the tourist town of Omis on Friday, enveloping settlements and forest areas. Local media reported that 14 people were hospitalised in nearby Split, seven of them in life-threatening condition.

“We have had an extremely difficult night, we have a complicated situation in the area from Lokva Rogoznica to Omis,” Chief Fire Commander Slavko Tucakovic told local news outlets.

In western Germany, authorities ordered about 1,800 people to evacuate after a wildfire spread towards Gey, a village near the border with Belgium. In southwestern France, 525 villagers fled a blaze in the pine woods of the Landes region, which had already been hit by major fires this summer.

The French fire had razed 1,100 hectares, or 2,700 acres, since starting on Thursday and reached within 2 kilometres, or 1.2 miles, of the centre of Luglon village. “The situation is unfavourable,” regional official Gilles Clavreul told reporters, adding that 500 firefighters and six aircraft were tackling the flames.

In northern Greece’s Halkidiki region, tourists and residents fled villages on Thursday after strong winds fanned a wildfire that engulfed houses and trees near a resort during the holiday season. The blazes followed successive heatwaves this summer, with about 500,000 hectares scorched across the European Union; scientists link the hot weather and severe drought driving the fires to climate change.