Almost 500 people have been arrested on suspicion of starting wildfires in France since the start of the summer, authorities have said, as firefighters in half a dozen European countries tackle ferocious blazes amid a record-breaking heatwave. With three out of five Europeans facing temperatures of at least 30C on Friday and about 150 million enduring 35C or more, France’s interior ministry said 474 people, including 183 minors, had been detained over wildfires in the country since 1 July. About 70% of those arrested were suspected of deliberately starting fires and the rest of doing so accidentally, it said.
French media said a 15-year-old boy had been detained in connection with a fire near Bordeaux airport that killed two firefighters in July. French authorities on Friday evacuated more than 525 people from the village of Luglon in the south-west region of Landes after a new wildfire tore through almost 1,100 hectares (2,700 acres) of tinder-dry pine forest in less than 24 hours. Roads to the village were closed.
Luglon is about 62 miles (100km) south-east of the popular holiday destinations of Arcachon Bay and the Lège-Cap-Ferret peninsula where two huge wildfires destroyed more than 50,000 hectares in late July, forcing the evacuation of as many as 220,000 people. Scientists say climate breakdown is causing more frequent and more extreme weather events, evaporating soils and waterways, fuelling wildfires and leading to thousands of excess deaths in France. Europe is heating at about twice the global average rate.
In western Germany, more than 2,000 people fled their homes early on Friday morning to take shelter in a nearby primary school after a wildfire in the nearby Hürtgen forest spread to within a few hundred metres of the village of Gey. Unexploded second world war ordnance was also hampering firefighting efforts. The news agency dpa reported explosions could be heard as munitions detonated in the flames, forcing firefighters to stay out of the area, not far from the Belgian border, for safety.
German army tanks and helicopters were providing support. In Croatia, a wildfire driven by strong winds descended on the tourist town of Lokva Rogoznica on the Dalmatian coast overnight, engulfing houses, forcing about 1,000 people to evacuate and injuring several dozen, fire brigade and health officials said. Of 36 people treated by ambulance services in the city of Split, about 15.5 miles to the north, 14 were admitted to hospital and seven had life-threatening injuries, local health officials said.
Emergency shelters opened in several nearby towns. The country’s prime minister, Andrej Plenković, said on a visit nearby Omiš, where the evacuees were sheltering in a sports hall, that the blaze was “one of the worst fires in recent years” but “the most important” there were no confirmed fatalities so far. A stretch of a major coastal highway was shut.
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