Europe has been gripped by successive heatwaves and a major drought this year, which scientists have attributed to human-caused climate change. The neighbouring countries have battled some of the worst forest fires in living memory over the past week, burning vast areas and forcing tens of thousands of people from their homes.In France, temperatures cooled near the wine capital of Bordeaux, raising hopes that an end was near for the fire in a seaside pine forest that has displaced 220,000 people and destroyed around 240 homes.The regional firefighting service said they were "reasonably optimistic", after the fire that broke out a week ago had not progressed beyond 42,000 hectares -- an area larger than the US city of Detroit -- since the weekend.
Volunteers have been helping battle the flames © ROMAIN PERROCHEAU / AFP
"We've just reached a new threshold, a kind of tipping point," firefighting chief Marc Vermeulen said around midday, saying hotspots had dropped from six to three since the morning.Local authorities said they were allowing people to return home in nine villages of the coastal region that has seen France's worst wildfire since 1949.In the area of Lanton, volunteer Maxence Cereja however remained cautious as he put out smouldering embers from the previous night's blaze."Yesterday morning it was as calm as it is now, and then it all flared up again in the afternoon," the owner of a tiling company told AFP
