At the same time, French firefighters are preparing for more difficult conditions in fighting the raging flames.
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Last week, neighboring countries were hit by some of the largest forest fires in history. The fire destroyed vast areas and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate.
Late Tuesday evening, Spanish authorities lifted more than a dozen evacuation orders for municipalities west of the capital Madrid, where the fire epicenter was located.
“24,000 evacuated people were able to return to their homes, and another 20,000 people in the Madrid region were allowed to end isolation,” said Francisco Martin Aguirre, a representative of the central government in the region, on the social network X late Tuesday evening.
Similar measures were lifted in the Valencia region in the eastern part of the country.
“I am happy – I couldn’t wait to get home, have coffee, and have breakfast,” said Maria Jesus Perez Blanca, a woman in her eighties, one of a dozen who returned to the Aldea del Fresno café west of Madrid, on Wednesday morning.
Her daughter, 39-year-old housewife Susana Barrul, who was nearby, said she was glad to be back home and able to continue her daily routine: “getting up in the morning, drinking coffee, going shopping, coming home, and cooking.”
The central government representation in Madrid said on Wednesday that better weather conditions overnight helped firefighting teams reduce the intensity of the fires and stabilize their perimeter.
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told journalists on Tuesday that firefighters are controlling the fires and on Wednesday will seek, if possible, to stabilize and extinguish all flames.
Meanwhile, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Wednesday that efforts to extinguish a large forest fire near Madrid are progressing “favorably.”
“I think the next 12 hours will be very important – they will be decisive in consolidating the work done by the civil protection service,” said P. Sanchez.
In France, the Gironde prefecture reported a second calm night and said that the large fire in the region west of Bordeaux, the wine capital of France, is stable.
“Extreme temperature”
However, on Wednesday, weather conditions were expected to worsen as the fourth heatwave arrived during an already intense summer.
“We are worried about today,” said Jeremy Presi, a local businessman volunteering to help firefighters at a water refill station.
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“Tourists can get in their cars and leave. This is our home,” he said as fire trucks headed toward the flames.
In the Gironde and neighboring Landes departments, an orange-level warning has been in effect since noon, with temperatures expected to reach 41 degrees inland and 38 degrees on the coast.
Firefighters fear that strengthening winds could blow embers and reignite the fire.
Wednesday “will be an important day that we will watch closely, considering the extreme temperature we will experience,” said Gironde fire chief Lieutenant Colonel Eric Pitault on Tuesday.
Despite these concerns, the department reported that 57,000 residents from three towns near Bordeaux, who were evacuated on Friday and Saturday, will be allowed to return home.
Fire in Greece
Europe has been hit this year by successive heatwaves and severe drought, which scientists link to human-caused climate change.
Extreme heat has dried out vegetation that grew lushly during the wet season, creating highly flammable conditions.
In Spain, 207,000 hectares of land have burned nationwide – one of the largest areas for the January–July period, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System. Spanish officials provided slightly different figures.
In France, this number reaches 92,000 hectares – the largest area in the past two decades.
Although the focus is currently on Western Europe, the European Union (EU) warned this week that fire-prone conditions will spread to the continent’s center in the coming days.
In Greece, firefighters battled a fire on the Aegean island of Paros on Wednesday, where strong winds fanned the flames.
The Greek fire service reported that two aircraft, five helicopters, and about 100 firefighters were deployed to control the fire.
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