Thousands of people were evacuated last night as a fire that killed two firefighters threatened a tourist resort on the Greek island of Crete, while another firefighter died during efforts to put out a separate fire in mainland Greece.
The fire south of the city of Rethymno, in the island's southwest, had forced officials to evacuate some 8,000 people overnight as it threatened the village resort of Agia Galini.
Although the situation was improving today, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis warned of "difficult days" ahead as the summer heat persists.
Yiannis Tatarakis, mayor of the main outlying village of Agios Vassilios, said the Agia Galini resorts had reopened and visitors had been allowed to return.
Agia Galini hotelier Michalis Christoforakis, said that holidaymakers were returning to their hotels and lodgings, with the vital tourism season in full swing.
"Some people were worried" during the evacuations, he said in a phone interview, "but there was no panic".
The National Observatory's weather website meteo.gr said wind shears in the Rethymno area had been recorded at up to 120 km/h, creating a fire front of over 12 kilometres (7.5 miles)
"We evacuated (some) 8,000 people" from the resort village of Agia Galini, Maria Lioni, deputy governor of the Rethymno area, told state TV ERT.
The evacuations were decided as the fire, which broke out yesterday and had earlier killed two firefighters, got to within a kilometre of the village before changing direction in the evening.
The fire is believed to have burned down homes, agricultural facilities and farm animals, but the toll is unclear as the fire is ongoing, Lioni said.
Two firefighters were trapped on a mountain road near the village of Krya Vrysi and died as the winds kept changing direction.
"It was a dark day," Ms Lioni said.
Separate fires on Greek mainland and Lesbos
A third firefighter collapsed and died during efforts to put out a separate fire near Gytheio in the Peloponnese peninsula.
The fire department had dedicated a force of over 200 firefighters and 53 fire engines in the Rethymno area in southwestern Crete, but winds of up to 102 kilometres (63 miles) an hour was preventing most aircraft from taking on seawater.
The prime minister paid tribute to the fallen firefighters, and warned that "difficult days" lay ahead.
"August... is traditionally a difficult month," Mr Mitsotakis told a cabinet meeting.
"I really want to ask all our fellow citizens to show the greatest care possible... we have many fires starting from gross negligence," he said.
Greece faces destructive wildfires almost every summer as prolonged drought, high temperatures and strong winds create ideal conditions for blazes to spread rapidly.
Nearly 100 firefighters were separately tackling a fire near the village of Plomari on the island of Lesbos.
The civil protection ministry placed several areas on near-maximum fire alert for Thursday, including Crete, the greater Athens area, the eastern Peloponnese and most of the Aegean islands.
Firefighters 'optimistic' on Bordeaux blaze
France firefighters were hopeful today that a massive forest fire was no longer spreading, as Spain lifted a state of emergency over wildfires near Madrid.
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.
"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.
He had earlier warned that his teams would still have to spend several days dousing water on remaining flames inside the forest as well as at its edges to avoid it picking up again.
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 said.
"Earlier in the day, a clap of thunder had cracked over the town of Lege-Cap-Ferret, and a few raindrops started to fall.
"There's thunder, that's good," said a firefighter at the command post set up in the town's sports hall, though not much rain then fell on the area.
Two people were earlier arrested on suspicion of arson.
New Spanish wildfire close to Portuguese border
A new wildfire in western Spain near the Portuguese border has burned 11,000 hectares in 24 hours and forced 800 people to evacuate, officials said today.
The mayor of Fermoselle, where the fire started on yesterday, gave the number of hectares and told AFP the village faced "hell" and a "tunnel of flame" in the blaze, which follows days of larger wildfires west of Madrid.
Emergency services for the Castilla y Leon region said 800 people were evacuated from the path of the new blaze.
Spain's Military Emergency Unit (UME) was deployed to the Level 2 fire - a classification that triggers extra support from the central government.
Raul de la Fuente, a senior fire official in the Castilla y Leon regional government, said the fire was burning through a ravine and threatening to reach another village, with strong winds forecast.
"We are focusing our efforts in stopping that from happening," he told reporters.
Two other Level 2 fires, at Val de la Loba and San Cipriano del Condado, were active in the same Zamora province, in the Castile and Leon region which has already been hit by the largest fire in Spanish history since record-keeping began.
That fire in the Avila area has burned approximately 50,000 hectares of land.
Read more: 'Alert! Get out' - an Irish family's experience of fleeing the French wildfires
Excess deaths in UK caused by heatwaves double
There have been almost double the number of excess deaths caused by heatwaves so far this year than in last summer, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said.
A new report estimates there were 2,877 heat-associated deaths during the heatwaves in May and June this year, almost double the figure reported from the UK heatwaves in June to August last year.
An estimated 753 deaths were associated with the May heatwave from 24-27 May, and a further 2,124 with the June heatwave between 21 and 28 June.
"While these figures remain interim, they are already approaching the annual record reported by UKHSA in 2022," the report said.
Meanwhile, properties have been evacuated as firefighters battle a large heathland blaze on the Suffolk coast during the UK's fourth heatwave of the summer.
A major incident was declared after Suffolk Fire and Rescue responded to reports of a wildfire at Dunwich Heath, near Leiston, shortly after 5.30pm yesterday.
"Following the update throughout the night, crews from Suffolk Fire and Rescue are still tackling a large wildfire at Dunwich Heath," the fire service said in an update this morning.
"Throughout the night crews have been focused on protecting properties including Coastguard Cottages, Mount Pleasant Farm and Cliff House Holiday Park.
"All individuals have been evacuated successfully."
The fire spread south-west towards St James’ Church, off Westleton Road, the service said, confirming the major incident declaration had been made "due to the size and complexity" of the blaze.
Temperatures soared across parts of the UK on Wednesday, reaching into the 30s in some places.
Record areas of land burned in Spain and France
Europe has been gripped by successive heatwaves and a major drought this year, which scientists have attributed to human-caused climate change.
Extreme heat has parched vegetation that grew vigorously during wet weather earlier in the year, creating tinderbox conditions.
In Spain, 207,000 hectares of land has burned nationwide, among the largest areas in any January to July period on record according to the European Forest Fire Information System.
Spanish authorities have reported marginally different figures.
In France, some 92,000 hectares have burned over the same period - the largest area ever documented in records that date back two decades.
Watch: Firefighters battle wildfire in southwest Turkey
Fires in Turkey have forced the evacuation of hundreds of people around tourist beaches in the south, with hundreds of firefighters tackling the flames.
Emergency services in Turkey were responding to 115 fires, "110 of which have been completely brought under control," Agriculture Minister Ibrahim Yumakli said today.
According to the minister, who was speaking live from the wildfire coordination centre in Ankara, 69 of the fires that were being battled yesterday ignited "outside forested areas."
