UK wildfires 2026 reached across Europe on Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, as fires in the Croatian coastal town of Omis injured at least seven people and forced more than 1,000 residents to leave their homes. In Germany, all 1,800 residents of Gey were evacuated after a nearby blaze in the Hürtgen forest threatened the village.
The Omis fire left at least seven people seriously injured and in life threatening condition after flames raged overnight and turned the sky orange. Firefighters were still working to put out the blaze on Friday, with the evacuation pressure falling hardest on families in the town and along the Adriatic coast.
Omis and the Adriatic coast
The Croatian coastal town of Omis became the clearest test of the day’s fire response. More than 1,000 people evacuated their homes after the fire spread through the area, and the overnight smoke showed how quickly the blaze had moved into a populated place where residents had little room to absorb the disruption.
France added a wider heat backdrop to the same day’s events, entering the peak of its fifth heat wave of the summer on Thursday. That heat extended the strain across Europe and gave the fires in Croatia, Spain, and Germany a shared setting: dry, dangerous conditions that forced officials to act before fire fronts reached more homes.
Monastery of San Juan de la Peña
Spain took a different kind of precaution on Thursday at the Monastery of San Juan de la Peña in Huesca province. Historical artifacts were evacuated to a safe location, with members of Spain’s Emergency Military Unit assisted by heritage experts as they removed boxes with skeletal remains and precious items from the monastery.
The move kept damage from becoming permanent if the fire threat shifted toward the site. For people responsible for heritage protection, the priority was not only to move objects but to do it fast enough to avoid losing items that could not be replaced.
Gey in Germany
Germany’s evacuation in Gey was broader and more immediate. All 1,800 residents of the village in North Rhine-Westphalia were moved out after a wildfire in the nearby Hürtgen forest threatened to reach their homes, while smoke rose above the Hürtgenwald in Düren and drifted over the Gey district.
For residents, the practical effect was total departure from the village rather than a partial warning. Whether the fires in Croatia, Spain, and Germany were contained by the time of publication is not stated, leaving evacuees and emergency crews waiting on the same thing: clearance to go back or orders to stay out.
