LEGE-CAP FERRET, France (AP) — France gave the go-ahead Thursday for 84,000 evacuees forced out by a monster wildfire to return to home, the strongest sign yet that firefighters are turning a corner in a grueling battle against the flames that have burned an area four times the size of Paris. But blazes flared elsewhere across Europe and actor George Clooney said he'd evacuated his French home because of a nearby wildfire.
Europe is sweltering under an exceptionally hot and arid summer, creating tinderbox conditions for unprecedented fires that have flared from the Atlantic coast to the eastern Mediterranean and forced hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate homes and vacation spots.
Firefighters battled flames in the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany and Turkey on Thursday and were tamping down smoldering forests in southwest France where 224,000 people had been forced to flee. Romania shut down both reactors at its Cernavoda nuclear power plant due to low water levels in the Danube River used to cool them.
Hollywood star George Clooney wrote to his local mayor that his family evacuated the southeastern French town where they've settled and that “we have no idea whether our beautiful home makes it through this terrible moment.” Clooney's publicist Guido Gotz shared the letter to Brignoles Mayor Didier Brémond with The Associated Press.
"Amal and I are committed to making sure that whatever happens to our village” Clooney wrote, referring to his wife Amal, a human rights lawyer. “We are part of this community and we’ll be part of making it whole.”
The fire near Brignoles, in the Var region, flared Wednesday, forcing 700 people to evacuate, the mayor's office said. It said they were allowed back Thursday once the fire was tamed.
In the Bordeaux region of southwest France, wildfire evacuees streamed back to nine localities that authorities now deem safe. Among them was 50-year-old Sanachit Pho Ne Keo and his wife, who were relieved to discover that apart from black ash on an outside terrace, their home in Martignas-sur-Jalle wasn't damaged.
“Everything seems OK and it’s a good feeling!” he said.
“The fire was pretty close, the last smoking embers are still close,” he added. “But we could’ve expected worse.”
Regional health authorities recommended that returnees wear gloves and face masks as they clean up and wash children’s toys and pets’ feeding bowls and paws. France’s public health agency reported that call-out doctors and hospital emergency wards in Bordeaux had seen a spike in cases involving asthma sufferers last weekend when the raging wildfire was still spewing choking smoke clouds.
“We’re on the right track,” said Sophie Brocas, prefect of Bordeaux's Gironde region who gave the go-ahead for nearly two-thirds of the 224,000 evacuees to go home. They include 60,000 people allowed back to three Bordeaux suburbs on Tuesday.
Returnees were told to keep phones on and pack bags in case they have to be evacuated again.
The A63 highway south of Bordeaux also was being reopened, clearing a major artery for road traffic with Spain and vacationers as France enters its peak August holiday period.
Gironde authorities said the blaze is no longer growing beyond the 420 square kilometers (about 162 square miles) already affected — an area four times that of Paris.
Capitalizing on the shift of momentum in fire crews' favor, police water cannons usually used for riot control are being added to the massive effort to extinguish embers and flare-ups, involving 3,300 firefighters and a fleet of two dozen planes and helicopters dumping water and retardants, French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said.
More aid came from other countries, with Luxembourg, Slovakia, Latvia, Germany and Serbia sending fire crews, adding to planes, helicopters and other assistance already provided by other countries, and Ukraine also offering help, Nuñez said.
Crews using heavy diggers continued ripping up trees and bushes to carve barriers of land between woodlands that burned and those that didn't, boxing in the blaze with new firebreaks — now exceeding a total of 130 kilometers (80 miles) through the forests.
Emergency crews also set fires deliberately to burn away scrub that could fuel the wildfire.
“If we light a fire here, we know that our fire will move toward the incoming fire. So we’re not taking much of a risk,” said Lt. Col. Jérôme Jallet, overseeing a burn.
A heat wave — France's fourth of the year — gave way Thursday to cooler weather, higher humidity and even a little rain, helping the effort.
Successive heatwaves have created tinder-dry conditions across swaths of southern Europe and whack-a-mole emergencies for fire crews, with blazes flaring as others are extinguished.
Authorities in Greece said Wednesday that three firefighters had died on the island on Crete.
In Spain, battling one of its largest wildfires on record this week, firefighters tackled multiple blazes in northwestern Zamora and eastern Castellón, after progress the day before to stabilize two main fires of concern in the Madrid region and Ávila.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez warned of a new heat wave, saying: “Let us all exercise the utmost caution and prevention, as some of these fires are caused by human recklessness.”
At the peak of evacuations, a third of a million people were driven from homes and vacation sites in France and Spain.
In France, two firefighters suffered light injuries battling a woodlands blaze in the eastern Burgundy region that was contained 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 Germany, firefighters using drones and helicopters battled a forest fire in the Chiemgau Alps, near the Austrian border, the dpa news agency reported.
In England, more than 90 firefighters were tackling burning heathlands near the eastern coast, with dozens of people evacuated from homes, vacation cottages and a mobile home park.
Half of England is suffering drought after more than a month without rain in many areas.
In Turkey, firefighters tackled forest fires in four western provinces, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
Blazes in touristic Mugla and Antalya and elsewhere raged overnight amid hot weather and strong winds, with residents evacuated and firefighting planes and helicopters deployed.
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Turnbull reported from Martignas-sur-Jalle, France, and Leicester reported from Paris. Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Jill Lawless and Samuel Petrequin in London, Suman Naishadham in Madrid, and Stephen McGrath in Leamington Spa, England contributed to this report.
