France contains Bordeaux wildfire as evacuees return home

Firefighters across France have made significant progress against major wildfires, allowing thousands of evacuees to begin returning home, though authorities warn that dangerous conditions persist. The largest blaze, in the Gironde department near Bordeaux, has been contained after burning approximately 42,000 hectares over 11 days. Officials authorized the return of residents and tourists to the worst-affected municipality, Le Porge, starting Monday afternoon, August 3, with the popular tourist peninsula of Lège-Cap-Ferret to follow in the evening.

This marks a major step toward recovery from one of the largest peacetime evacuations in modern French history, which saw 224,000 people from 23 municipalities displaced since the fire began on July 22. Officials cautioned that the fire, while no longer advancing, is not extinguished. Hotspots continue to smolder in the dry, peaty soil, and operations involving hundreds of firefighters, bolstered by reinforcements from Ukraine, Lithuania, and French Polynesia, could continue for months.

In the southeastern Var department, firefighters continued to battle a separate major blaze that ignited on July -30. By Sunday evening, August 2, it...