{"id":771008,"date":"2026-07-18T22:43:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T22:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/771008\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T22:43:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T22:43:09","slug":"norway-huge-fire-destroys-100-homes-sparks-evacuations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/771008\/","title":{"rendered":"Norway: Huge fire destroys 100 homes, sparks evacuations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A fire that broke out in a townhouse in southern <a class=\"internal-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/norway\/t-18943636\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Norway<\/a> before destroying a hundred homes has been mostly brought under control, fire officials said Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Local media described the blaze as the largest in the Nordic nation\u00a0for more than a century.<\/p>\n<p>What do we know?<\/p>\n<p>The fire on the outskirts of\u00a0the city of Drammen, about 34 kilometers (21 miles) from Oslo,\u00a0broke out around 3:30 p.m. local time (1330 UTC\/GMT)\u00a0on Friday, before ripping through a row of townhouses.<\/p>\n<p>It then quickly spread through the neighborhood and toward\u00a0nearby forests due to strong winds and exceptionally dry conditions, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>Newspaper Aftenposten\u00a0reported that more than 400 people were evacuated.<\/p>\n<p><img data-format=\"MASTER_LANDSCAPE\" data-id=\"78019116\" data-url=\"https:\/\/static.dw.com\/image\/78019116_${formatId}.jpg\" data-aspect-ratio=\"16\/9\" alt=\"Smoke billows from a huge blaze that destroyed properties in Drammen, Norway, on July 17, 2026\" style=\"padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; max-height: 0;\"\/>Drammen is Norway&#8217;s seventh largest cityImage: Thomas Fure\/NTB\/picture alliance<\/p>\n<p>Public broadcaster NRK said firefighters were brought in from several districts to work\u00a0through the night to try to bring the blaze under control.<\/p>\n<p>Several helicopters used to extinguish forest fires were also deployed, local media reported.<\/p>\n<p>By Saturday lunchtime, Aftenposten\u00a0cited officials as saying there was no longer a major risk of the fire spreading within residential areas, but that firefighters hadn&#8217;t yet gained control over forested areas.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img data-format=\"MASTER_LANDSCAPE\" data-id=\"78019142\" data-url=\"https:\/\/static.dw.com\/image\/78019142_${formatId}.jpg\" data-aspect-ratio=\"16\/9\" alt=\"A fire helicopter drops water on a large fire in Drammen, Norway, on July 17, 2026\" style=\"padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; max-height: 0;\"\/>Several firefighting helicopters were brought in to douse the flamesImage: Thomas Fure\/NTB\/picture alliance<\/p>\n<p>No deaths were reported, police said, but one firefighter was slightly injured and\u00a0several people were treated for smoke inhalation.<\/p>\n<p>Newspaper Dagbladet reported that the scene\u00a0resembles a war zone, with\u00a0burned-out cars and burned-down houses.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>PM describes fire as &#8216;deeply shocking&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Prime Minister\u00a0Jonas Gahr Store sent his condolences to those who lost their homes in the fire.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;My thoughts also go out to the fire and rescue crews and volunteers who are now taking part in the very demanding extinguishing work and are doing all they can to prevent the fire from spreading,&#8221; he wrote on social media.<\/p>\n<p>Officials say while the dry conditions may have helped the blaze\u00a0to spread quickly, they don&#8217;t yet know what caused the initial fire.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Edited by: Wesley Dockery<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t let the algorithm hide the news. If you rely on our team for trusted reporting, please take a moment to select us as your <a rel=\"noopener follow nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"external-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=dw.com\" title=\"External link \u2014 Preferred news source on Google by clicking here\">Preferred news source on Google by clicking here<\/a>, so you&#8217;ll always see our verified news first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fire that broke out in a townhouse in southern Norway before destroying a hundred homes has been&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":771009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-771008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=771008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/771008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/771009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=771008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=771008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=771008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}