Huge blaze threatens village in southern Croatia

ZAGREB (Reuters) - Several dozen residents were evacuated from a village in southern Croatia on Tuesday as firefighters struggled to keep a raging forest fire away from houses, state television HRT reported. It said a huge blaze had surrounded the village of Trstenik on the southern Peljesac peninsula, one of Croatia's most famous wine-growing regions, during the night. A fire line more than two kilometers (1.2 miles) long was still devouring a thick pine forest and vineyards on Tuesday morning, the television said. "We are fighting for the houses, it's touch and go, people have been evacuated," firefighter Petar Rasic told HRT. Another fire on the nearby Korcula island had destroyed 500 hectares of pine forest by Tuesday morning, the television said. Croatia has had a week of unusually high temperatures nearing 40 degrees Celsius, making forest fires along its Adriatic tourist coast increasingly likely. (Reporting by Zoran Radosavljevic; Editing by Dominic Evans)