People allowed back home in southwestern France as fire weakens

BORDEAUX, France, July 31 - Thousands of people evacuated in southwestern France due to a major wildfire were gradually allowed back home on Friday after authrities said the fire, which has burned for more than a week, was contained.

French authorities have ended the evacuation of 12 districts in the west and southwest of Bordeaux, allowing 144,000 people out of more than 220,000 to return home, Gironde prefect Sophie Brocas said in a statement on Friday.

"The situation is stable, the fire is contained within its perimeter," she said. "Overnight weather conditions were favourable: falling temperatures and high humidity levels."

The A63 highway that links the city of Bordeaux with the Spanish border was reopened. However, access to the Cap Ferret peninsula, a tourist hotspot, where valuable properties are located, remained closed, as the only road connecting it with the mainland runs through burned areas.

The wildfire in the Landes area west of Bordeaux has devastated 42,000 hectares (103,784 acres) of highly flammable pine tree forests, after a severe dry spell. The fire burned a few hundred houses.

So far this year, about 308 people were detained on suspicion of arson, intentional or not, in the whole country, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on Friday morning.

France is going through an unprecedented wildfire season. The area burned has already surpassed the previous record year of 2022.

Other areas burnt during the past few weeks included Brignoles in southeastern Provence, where inhabitants, including Hollywood actor George Clooney, his British wife Amal and their children, were evacuated. REUTERS