A fast-moving wildfire that swept toward the Croatian coastal town of Omiš injured dozens of people and forced roughly 1,200 residents and tourists to flee by land and sea, in what the country's prime minister called one of the worst fires Croatia has faced in years.
The fire broke out around 8:15 p.m. Thursday near the village of Lokva Rogoznica and spread overnight through drought-parched grass, scrub and pine forest, driven by strong, shifting winds. By around 1:45 a.m. it had reached Borak, a neighborhood above Omiš's town center, sending residents scrambling as flames closed in on homes just above the Adriatic coastline. By midday Friday it had burned an estimated 900 hectares — about 2,200 acres.
Dozens hurt, harbor boats pressed into evacuation
Croatian authorities said at least 40 people were treated in hospitals in Split, including seven with life-threatening injuries; some reports put the number in intensive care as high as ten, among them a 17-year-old. Harbor authority boats were used alongside road transport to evacuate roughly 1,200 people, including foreign tourists, as fire cut off some coastal routes. Croatian police said Friday afternoon that they had found a body in the burned area near Lokva Rogoznica; the person's identity and cause of death had not yet been established, and officials have not formally linked the death to the fire.
Nearly 300 firefighters were deployed overnight, backed by water-bombing aircraft once daylight allowed flights, but crews were repeatedly outpaced by the blaze as wind shifts pushed flames in new directions. "This fire spread at lightning speed," Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said. "What the firefighters managed to save is truly a miracle." Omiš fire chief Slavko Tucaković called it "one of the worst in Croatia's history," adding that it was "frightening even to watch" as it tore through homes, cafes, restaurants, cars and boats.
Heatwave and drought behind a brutal fire season
The blaze is the latest and most destructive in a run of wildfires that has hit the Dalmatian coast this month amid a prolonged heatwave and severe drought; temperatures in nearby Split reached 39.7°C this week, conditions that have left vegetation across the Balkans primed to burn. Red Cross shelters were opened in Omiš, Split and Makarska to house evacuees. "People have a bed, a shower, a toilet and food, but it's difficult to predict how long this situation will last," Red Cross regional director Tomislav Gojo said.
Omiš, a town of roughly 15,000 residents that swells with tourists in August, sits at the mouth of the Cetina River beneath the medieval Mirabela fortress, a landmark overlooking the gorge that has made the area a magnet for summer visitors. Local reporting described flames reaching within sight of the town center overnight, an unusually close call for a resort area normally associated with river rafting and beach tourism rather than fire evacuations.
By Friday, firefighters were continuing containment work as winds remained a hindrance to aerial operations, and authorities had not set a timeline for residents to return. Croatian officials said further reinforcements were being sent from other counties as the fire season, already one of the country's worst on record, showed no sign of easing.
