France wildfire no longer spreading, firefighters say

French firefighters said Thursday they were reasonably optimistic that a massive wildfire near Bordeaux was no longer spreading, after cooler conditions helped crews and authorities allowed residents to return to nine villages.

The fire in a seaside pine forest has displaced 220,000 people and destroyed about 240 homes. The regional firefighting service said it had not moved beyond 42,000 hectares since the weekend. Firefighting chief Marc Vermeulen said hotspots had fallen from six to three since the morning.

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez lifted a state of emergency over wildfires near Madrid after the prefect's office said they had stopped expanding with almost no flames left. A blaze west of Madrid has burned 27,000 hectares and destroyed at least 100 homes, according to a local official, and about 1,000 evacuees remained in the region by Thursday morning.

Spanish emergency services said a new fire in Fermoselle, near the Portuguese border, forced more than 600 people to evacuate. Another fire in Avila has burned about 50,000 hectares, making it Spain's largest since records began in 1961.

Authorities also reported evacuations on the Greek island of Crete, a forest fire in northern Portugal and at least 115 fires in Turkey, of which Turkey's agriculture minister said at least 110 were under control.