Europe’s wildfire crisis shifts as some 200,000 French return but new blazes force thousands to flee

Firefighters have contained a vast wildfire in southwestern France, allowing nearly 200,000 people to return home after what may have been the country’s largest peacetime evacuation LE PORGE, France -- Firefighters held a vast wildfire inside its perimeter in southwestern France on Saturday, allowing about 198,000 people to return home after what may have been the country’s largest peacetime evacuation , even as renewed fires forced thousands from their homes elsewhere in France and Greece. In the Mediterranean Var, a fire thought to have stopped advancing raced across 10 square kilometers (4 square miles) in six hours on Friday — “faster than a horse at full gallop,” the prefecture said. The opposing movements — mass returns in France's Gironde region, renewed displacement in the Var and boat evacuations from a Greek resort — underscored how quickly days of firefighting progress can be reversed. Rising temperatures and prolonged drought dry vegetation, allowing fires to spread faster and burn more intensely. It is contained,” Lt.

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