Tens of thousands of French wildfire evacuees allowed to return home as cooler weather moves in

LEGE-CAPFERRET (FRANCE): French authorities gave the go-ahead Thursday for 84,000 evacuees forced out by a monster wildfire to go back to their homes in southwest France, the strongest sign yet that firefighters are turning a corner in their battle against the flames that have burned an area four times the size of Paris.

Europe is enduring one of its hottest summers on record, with wildfires breaking out in areas stretching from the Atlantic coast to the eastern Mediterranean, and hundreds of thousands of people ordered to evacuate from homes and vacation destinations.

Firefighters fanned out to battle infernos in places like England, Spain, and Turkiye, while in Romania, officials at the state-owned Cernavoda nuclear power plant shut down both of its reactors because of the low level of Danube River waters used to cool them.

The returns authorised in France covered nine localities that had been evacuated, including several where firefighters and water-dropping planes had battled flare-ups just the day before. Higher humidity, cooler temperatures and slight rain have raised hopes that Thursday could be a decisive step on the way to vanquishing the fire.

“We're on the right track,” said Sophie Brocas, prefect of the Gironde region, which includes the city of Bordeaux.

Nearly two-thirds of the 224,000 people initially ordered to evacuate their homes in southwest France have now been allowed to go home. Some 60,000 people who had been evacuated from three Bordeaux suburbs were given the go-ahead to return on Tuesday.

Evacuees immediately streamed back Thursday to the emptied towns and villages, among them 50-year-old Sanachit Pho Ne Keo and his wife. They were relieved to discover that apart from black ash on an outside terrace, their home in Martignas-sur-Jalle hadn't been damaged or looted.

“Everything seems OK, and it's a good feeling!” he said. “The fire was pretty close; the last smoking embers are still close … but we could've expected worse.”

Local officials reported a “rather calm” night, with a fire that has not grown beyond the 42,000 hectares (about 162 sq. miles) already affected. Some expressed hope that hard-hit businesses could soon get back to work.

The regional prefecture said returning evacuees must keep their phones on for evacuation alerts and should pack in case they need to leave again.

Authorities also said the A63 highway, which has been closed since the weekend, was reopening Thursday afternoon, clearing a major artery for road traffic with Spain and vacationers as France enters its peak August holiday period.

Other European countries have sent firefighting resources into the region. French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez announced further boosts in the number of firefighters engaged now 3,300 backed by two dozen planes and helicopters that dump water and fire retardant onto smouldering woodlands.

First, police water cannons, usually used for riot control, have been deployed to help extinguish embers and flare-ups, Nunez said.

Crews using heavy diggers continued ripping up trees and bushes to carve broad stretches of barren land between woodlands that have burned and those that have been spared, trying to box in the giant blaze with new firebreaks now exceeding a total of 130 kilometres (80 miles) through the forests.

Emergency crews have set fires deliberately to fight the blaze to burn away scrub that could fuel the wildfire.

Temperatures that peaked around 40 Celsius a day earlier were dropping on Thursday, set to top out at 27 Celsius along the coast. An “orange” heat wave alert the second-highest level after “red” was lifted shortly before dawn.

Severe drought has created a whack-a-mole summer fire season for French emergency crews, with blazes popping up almost continuously around the country even as the monster fire in the southwest monopolised attention and consumed resources.

Two firefighters suffered light injuries battling a blaze in the woodlands in the eastern Burgundy region that was contained on Thursday. Another four were injured fighting a fire in the Var region of southern France that was brought under control with a dozen planes and helicopters dropping water and retardant, authorities said.

In Spain, which was battling one of its largest wildfires on record this week, firefighters tackled multiple blazes in places like northwestern Zamora and eastern Castellón on Thursday, even as they made progress the day before to stabilise the two main fires of concern in the Madrid region and Avila.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned of a new heatwave, saying: "Let us all exercise the utmost caution and prevention, as some of these fires are caused by human recklessness.”

At the peak of the evacuations, a third of a million people were driven from homes and vacation sites in France and Spain.

In England on Thursday, more than 90 firefighters were tackling a blaze on heathland near the eastern coast, where dozens of people have been evacuated from homes, vacation cottages and a mobile home park.

Officials have declared half of England officially in drought after more than a month without rain in many areas.

The wildfire emergency stretched from the Atlantic coast to the eastern Mediterranean: Authorities in Greece said Wednesday that three firefighters had died on the island of Crete.

In neighbouring Turkiye on Thursday, firefighters were tackling multiple forest fires in four western provinces, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

Blazes in touristic Mugla and Antalya and elsewhere raged overnight as hot weather and strong winds gripped the region. Residents were evacuated as teams with firefighting planes and helicopters battled the fires.

Authorities in countries like France, Germany and Britain have reported thousands of excess deaths this summer during the string of heat waves in Europe.