Record Heatwave Fuels Catastrophic Wildfires Across Multiple European Nations

In France, a new fire raced through woodlands overnight in the Landes region on the southwest coast, forcing more than 500 people to evacuate their homes in the town of Luglon. The regional administration said hundreds of firefighters were deployed to the area. The blaze is one of several scorching forests this week, including in normally cooler and wetter regions in the north and Brittany. A historic fire near Bordeaux last month pushed a quarter of a million people from their homes.

In the U.K., firefighters spent Friday tackling fires across the West Midlands in central England after the country recorded its hottest day of the year on Thursday. The fires led to thousands of emergency calls and forced people to flee from burning homes. Nineteen people were hospitalized, the ambulance service said. In Stourbridge, where a huge blaze started Thursday, TV footage showed fires consuming houses, with many left without roofs. Lawmaker Cat Eccles said about 20 to 30 homes were completely destroyed.

Evacuee Jane Baxter told BBC Radio that police knocked on her door and urged her to leave immediately. "They thought the fire was changing directions, and they didn't know which direction it was going in," she said. "So, it was literally 'grab what you need and get out.'" She added, "We could see the flames from our bedroom window. It was spreading so fast and going in quite a few different directions across the fields." Simon Tuhill, chief fire officer of West Midlands Fire Service, said an investigation will be launched, but the fire was believed to have started in grassland before spreading to homes.

In Germany, efforts to contain a wildfire were complicated by unexploded World War II munitions. In Croatia, shifting winds spread flames deeper into a coastal suburb and forced more than 1,000 people to flee. The Met Office, the U.K.'s official weather agency, recorded 38.1C (100.6F) in west London on Thursday, the hottest day of the year. While temperatures cooled slightly on Friday, many parts of the country have seen little to no rain for weeks.

The historic temperatures are linked to human-caused climate change and are hitting countries more designed for long cold seasons and ill-equipped for this sort of heat, with limited air conditioning. France is experiencing its driest year ever, and some 1,017 wildfires have been recorded in England and Wales this year, according to data from the National Fire Chiefs Council.