France lets 144,000 return as Bordeaux-area wildfire is contained
What's next: Access to Cap Ferret remains closed, even after the A63 highway to Spain reopened as crews watch for flare-ups.
French authorities began lifting evacuation orders around Bordeaux after a major wildfire in the Gironde department was contained, allowing 144,000 people in 12 districts to return home. Gironde prefect Sophie Brocas said the fire was stable within its perimeter after cooler temperatures and higher humidity overnight. The blaze in the Landes area west of Bordeaux has burned about 42,000 hectares of pine forest and damaged a few hundred houses after more than a week of fire. The A63 highway linking Bordeaux to the Spanish border reopened, but the road to the Cap Ferret peninsula stayed shut because it runs through burned terrain. France has already surpassed its 2022 record for area burned this year amid repeated heat waves and drought.