France gave permission on Thursday for 84,000 people forced to return home by a massive wildfire, the strongest sign yet that firefighters are turning a corner in the battle against the flames that have burned an area four times the size of Paris. But flames are raging elsewhere in Europe and actor George Clooney has said he is about to leave his French home because of a nearby wildfire.
Europe is sweltering under an unseasonably hot and dry summer, creating tinderbox conditions for unprecedented fires that have raged from the Atlantic coast to the eastern Mediterranean and forced hundreds of thousands of people from homes and holiday resorts.
Firefighters battled blazes in the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany and Turkey on Thursday and were cutting down smoldering forests in southwestern France where 224,000 people have been forced to flee. Romania has shut down both reactors at its Cernavoda nuclear power plant due to low levels of water in the Danube River used for cooling.
Hollywood star George Clooney wrote to the local mayor that his family had to leave the city in the south-east of France where he settled and that “we don’t know if our beautiful home will survive this terrible time.” Clooney’s spokesman Guido Gotz shared the letter with Brignoles Mayor Didier Brémond and the Associated Press.
“Amal and I are committed to making sure that whatever happens in our community” Clooney wrote, referring to his wife Amal, a human rights lawyer. “We are part of this community and we will be part of making it perfect.”
A fire near Brignoles, in the Var region, broke out on Wednesday, forcing 700 people to evacuate, the mayor’s office said. It said they were allowed to return on Thursday once the fire was fixed.
Those who returned from France removed the ashes
In the Bordeaux region of southwestern France, evacuees from the wildfires have returned to nine areas that authorities now consider safe. Among them were 50-year-old Sanachit Pho Ne Keo and his wife, who were relieved to find that apart from the black ash on the outside, their home in Martignas-sur-Jalle was undamaged.
“Everything looks fine and sounds great!” he said.
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“The fire was very close, the last smoking coals are still nearby,” he added. “But we could have expected the worst.”
County health authorities recommended that returnees wear gloves and face masks as they clean and wash children’s toys and pet bowls and paws. France’s public health agency reported that emergency doctors and hospital emergency wards in Bordeaux saw a spike in cases involving people with asthma last weekend as wildfires continued to send out clouds of smoke.
“We are on the right track,” said Sophie Brocas, the head of the Bordeaux region in the Gironde region that has given permission for nearly two-thirds of the 224,000 evacuees to go home. Including 60,000 people who were allowed to return to the three regions of Bordeaux on Tuesday.
The returnees were told to keep their phones switched on and pack their bags in case they were deported again.
The A63 motorway south of Bordeaux has also been reopened, clearing a major artery for Spanish traffic and tourists as France enters its August holiday season.
The fire is still smoking but not spreading
Authorities in the Gironde said the fire had not grown beyond the 420 square kilometers (about 162 square miles) already affected – an area four times the size of Paris.
In a move in favor of firefighters, police water cannons that are often used to control riots are being added to the massive effort to put out the embers and the blaze, which includes 3,300 firefighters and a fleet of twenty aircraft and helicopters that dump water and personnel, said French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez.
More help is coming from other countries, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Latvia, Germany and Serbia have sent firefighters, in addition to planes, helicopters and other help already provided by other countries, and Ukraine is also providing help, said Nuñez.
Workers using heavy excavators continued to rip up trees and shrubs to carve earth barriers between the burned and unburned forest, punching the blaze with new firebreaks – now totaling 130 kilometers (80 miles) of forest.
Emergency workers are also deliberately setting fires to burn debris that could fuel the wildfire.
“If we light a fire here, we know that our fire will spread to the next fire.” So we don’t take a big risk,” said Lt. Col. Jérôme Jallet, who oversees the fire.
A heat wave – France’s fourth of the year – gave Thursday cool weather, high humidity and little rain, helping the effort.
Tinderbox conditions across southern Europe
Successive heat waves have created scorching dry conditions across southern Europe and whack-a-mole emergencies for fire crews, with blazes burning as others are extinguished.
Authorities in Greece said Wednesday that three firefighters died on the island of Crete.
In Spain, fighting the biggest wildfire this week, firefighters faced more flames in the northwest of Zamora and east of Castellon, after progress the previous day to stabilize two worrying fires in the region of Madrid and Ávila.
The Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, warned of a new wave of heat, saying: “Let us all be careful and prevent it, as some of these fires are caused by human negligence.”
At the peak of the exodus, a third of a million people were forced from their homes and holiday destinations in France and Spain.
In France, two firefighters suffered minor injuries battling a forest fire in eastern Burgundy that was contained on Thursday. Four others were injured when a fire broke out in the Var region of southern France that was controlled by dozens of planes and helicopters dropping water and scrap materials, 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 battling hot spots along the east coast, with dozens of people evacuated from homes, holiday homes and a home park.
Parts of England are facing drought after more than a month without rain in many areas.
In Turkey, firefighters have tackled forest fires in four western provinces, Anadolu news agency reported.
Fires in Mugla and tourist resorts in Antalya and elsewhere raged overnight amid hot weather and strong winds, prompting the evacuation of residents and the dispatch of firefighting planes and helicopters.
