{
  "id": 905175,
  "title": "Hundreds evacuated from Croatian and Greek resorts as wildfires stretch across Europe",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/14/hundreds-evacuated-from-croatian-and-greek-resorts-as-wildfires",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-08-14T20:23:40.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Channel News Asia",
    "slug": "channel-news-asia",
    "url": "https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/wildfire-europe-heatwave-croatia-resort-6320581"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A wildfire in Croatia claimed one life, injured 40, and forced 1,200 to flee their homes overnight in the picturesque town of Omis on the Dalmatian coast. The blaze, fueled by record-breaking heat and drought conditions linked to climate change, also swept across Greece, France, and England.\n\nIn northern Greece, more than 300 people were evacuated by boat from the town of Siviri, where a forest fire turned the sky dark grey. Over 140 firefighters, nine aircraft, and seven helicopters battled the flames, while fishing vessels assisted in the evacuation.\n\nOfficials in England reported that wildfires hit a record level for a second year in a row, exacerbated by five consecutive heatwaves. Phil Garrigan, chair of the National Fire Chiefs Council, warned that the situation could worsen, with a considerable increase in wildfires compared to previous years.\n\nIn France, 525 people were evacuated from the village of Luglon after a wildfire broke out in the Landes region. In Spain, a wildfire in Huelva burned 31,000 hectares and forced the evacuation of 700 people. Firefighting planes in Spain have logged over 8,200 hours of flying time this year, surpassing the total hours flown in 2025, when a record 393,000 hectares burned.\n\nThe European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service issued a warning of \"very extreme\" conditions across large areas of central and eastern Europe, with additional pockets over southern Britain, Ireland, northern France, and southern Sweden. The average high temperature across Western Europe was forecast to be 31.2 degrees Celsius (88 degrees Fahrenheit), 8 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) above the typical value from 1961 to 1990. The relentless heat and drought could also significantly impact agriculture, potentially halving France's maize harvest and reducing European Union production to its smallest in decades.",
  "summary": "A wildfire in Croatia killed one person, injured 40 and forced 1,200 people to evacuate, while Greece, France and England also faced major fires.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 3,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "France 24",
        "title": "Europe: Raging wildfires scorch large swaths of the continent",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/14/europe-raging-wildfires-scorch-large-swaths-of-the-continent",
        "published": "2026-08-14T16:02:43.000Z"
      },
      {
        "outlet": "Al Jazeera",
        "title": "Wildfires rage across Europe as heatwaves drive record temperatures",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/14/wildfires-rage-across-europe-as-heatwaves-drive-record-temperatures",
        "published": "2026-08-14T21:50:35.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}