Rain dampens France fire, as Spain reports 'almost no flames'

Firefighters in France on Thursday were hopeful a massive forest fire was no longer spreading, as Spain said there were “almost no flames” left after a similar blaze near Madrid.

The neighbouring countries have been gripped by some of the worst forest fires in living memory over the past week, burning vast areas and forcing tens of thousands of people from their homes.

In France, cooler temperatures and some rain were expected on Thursday near the wine capital of Bordeaux, raising hopes that an end to the fire in a seaside pine forest was near and some of the 220,000 displaced could soon return home.

A clap of thunder cracked over the town of Lege-Cap-Ferret, and a few raindrops started to fall over the coastal region that has seen France’s worst wildfire since 1949.

“There’s thunder, that’s good,” said a firefighter at the command post set up in the town’s sports hall.

The regional firefighting service said they were “reasonably optimistic”, after the fire that broke out a week ago had not progressed beyond 42,000 hectares — an area larger than the US city of Detroit — since the weekend.

Regional firefighting chief Marc Vermeulen warned his teams would still have to spend several days dousing water on remaining flames inside the forest as well as at its edges to avoid it picking up again.

The fire has displaced more than 220,000 holiday makers — from campsites, bungalows and secondary homes — as well as residents. It has also destroyed around 240 homes since last week.

‘We’ll sell the house’

Further inland, in the city of Bordeaux, Uber driver Kevin Montmartre — who said he had been forced to evacuate from the flames three times in recent days — said that the increased frequency of climate change-fanned wildfires was making him reconsider his home in the beach town of Andernos-les-Bains.

“Honestly, I’ve talked it over with my wife, and if there’s another one in the coming years, we’ll sell the house,” he told AFP at the wheel of his Tesla as the rain began to fall in Bordeaux.

In Spain, wildfires threatening areas near Madrid had stopped expanding, authorities said, reporting “no spread for several days, few smoking spots and almost no flames left,” the prefect’s office there said.

A total of 27,000 hectares have burnt in the Madrid region since Wednesday last week, regional president Isabel Diaz Ayuso said on Wednesday evening.

At least one hundred houses have been destroyed according to an initial assessment, but that figure is expected to rise.

By Thursday morning, only a thousand evacuees remained in the region, after thousands returned home on Wednesday.

The Avila fire, slightly farther west, is the largest Spain has experienced since records began in 1961, with around 50,000 hectares burnt.

Elsewhere in Europe, thousands of people were evacuated late on Wednesday as fires threatened a tourist resort on the Greek island of Crete and continued to rage on Thursday, fanned by violent winds, authorities said.

The fire is believed to have burnt down homes, agricultural facilities and farm animals, but the toll is unclear as the fire is ongoing, local official Maria Lioni said.

Turkey was also battling at least 115 fires across the country, although at least 110 were under control, according to the country’s agriculture minister.