Europe's wildfire crisis eases in west as danger shifts to Greece
While France and Spain see progress against major blazes that displaced 300,000 people, high winds drive flames through a Greek seaside resort and force hundreds to flee by sea.
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Europe's wildfire emergency eased in the west on Saturday, but the danger has shifted to Greece.
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Gale-force winds drove flames through a seaside resort and hundreds had to be evacuated by sea after being trapped by the fire.
Around 500 people, mostly tourists, were stranded after the blaze spread rapidly from near Agios Vasileios in Viotia on Friday due to strong winds, local media report.
In south-western France, firefighters held a vast blaze within its perimeter, with about 198,000 people now allowed home after what may have been the country's largest peacetime evacuation.
Major fires in Spain were no longer advancing, and Portugal's main blaze was under control, marking a sharp turn from the height of the crisis, when fires in France and Spain alone drove a third of a million people from their homes.
A second French fire stopped expanding overnight after racing across four square miles in six hours on Friday — "faster than a horse at full gallop", according to the prefecture — but remained active on Saturday, with 2,500 people still unable to return.
Read more: George and Amal Clooney flee £8m French chateau with twins amid raging wildfires
Europe is Earth's fastest-warming continent, heating at more than twice the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union's Copernicus climate service.
Rising temperatures and prolonged drought leave vegetation drier and more combustible, allowing fires to spread faster and burn more intensely.
Nearly 500 firefighters battled on Saturday to protect Porto Germeno, a popular resort on the Gulf of Corinth, as flames tore through thick pine forest and smoke blocked out the sun.
The fire broke out on Friday near the neighbouring coastal village of Agios Vasileios. About 300 people were evacuated by sea, and authorities issued further evacuation orders on Saturday.
"A pristine forest, a paradise, was surrendered to the hands of the fire," said Minas Tzortzanis, a 60-year-old farmer and local resident. "There are no words to explain what has happened. Destruction. Total destruction."
Theodore Giannaros, a wildfire meteorologist at the National Observatory of Athens, estimated that 15 to 19 square miles had been affected. The operation included specialised forest-fire teams, crews from France and Romania, 19 water-dropping planes and 11 helicopters.
In France, the Gironde fire has burned 162 square miles of pine forest west of Bordeaux, an area four times the size of Paris. It remained contained but had not been declared "fixed", with active sectors and buried hot spots persisting.
For residents returning to the Gironde fire zone, the easing emergency brought a first reckoning with what had been lost. In Le Porge, one of the hardest-hit communities, Matthieu Plessis returned on Saturday to the ruins of a home that had been in his family for seven generations.
"It's not easy. I'm trying to stay strong and help other people now," Mr Plessis said. "I don't want to spend the next 10 years feeling sorry for myself."