The fire near the Mediterranean coast ravaged a vast area of the Aude department at the peak of the summer tourist season, killing one person and wounding several others.
Experts say European countries are becoming ever more vulnerable to such disasters due to intensifying summer heatwaves linked to global warming.
Firefighters announced that the Aude blaze was brought under control on Thursday, though it would still take several more days before it is completely extinguished.
"The weather is changing in our favour," Remi Recio, a senior regional official who is the sub-prefect for the southern city of Narbonne, told reporters, pointing to "a weakening of the wind" and rising humidity.
"The light drizzle this morning is also welcome," he said, in Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, the town hit worst by the fire.
However the low cloud cover that helps the firefighters on the ground makes aerial operations to fight the fire more complicated.
Relief from the weather could be short-lived with the region placed on alert for a heatwave and more wind this weekend.
"The firefighters will do their utmost before the return of the tramontane" this weekend, the president of the Aude departmental council, Helene Sandragne, told AFP, referring to a northerly wind that regularly blows through the area.
"It's a relief that the fire is under control, but it's still essential to show complete vigilance," she said.
- 'Complete despair' -
The fire, the largest for at least 50 years, swept through 17,000 hectares (4,200 acres) of vegetation in just over 48 hours.
About 2,000 people were evacuated, though local authorities started allowing some to return home on Friday.
Electricity has been restored to almost all the affected villages.
Almost 2,000 firefighters had been mobilised Thursday to fight the fire, with about 1,000 still on the job Friday.
In Saint-Laurent-de-la-Cabrerisse, a 65-year-old woman was found dead Wednesday in her home, which was devastated by flames.
The authorities said 18 people were injured: two residents who were hospitalised, one of whom suffered serious burns, as well as 16 firefighters.
As well as the damage to forests, local authorities estimate that "800 to 900 hectares" of vineyards have been lost.
"If we don't get help, we won't recover. We're losing a lot. It's complete despair," Fabien Vergnes, 52, told AFP on his 20-hectare property in Tournissan outside Saint-Laurent.
"It outrages me, this vineyard, all these years of work, went up in smoke in an hour," he said.
Regional prosectors have said investigations are underway into the origin of the fire.
With Europe facing new August heatwaves, many areas are on alert for wildfires. Portugal on Thursday extended emergency measures because of the heightened risk of fires.
Near the Spanish town of Tarifa, fire crews secured areas near hotels and other tourist accommodations after controlling a major blaze that destroyed hundreds of hectares and forced the evacuation of more than 1,500 people.
The blaze, which broke out Tuesday in a wooded area near a beach outside Tarifa, a well-known hub for windsurfers, has now been brought under control, officials said.
Three die in Greece as gales stoke fires, disrupt ferries
Palaia Fokaia, Greece (AFP) Aug 8, 2025 -
Three people including two Vietnamese tourists died in Greece on Friday as ferocious winds whipped up wildfires and disrupted ferry travel for tens of thousands of summer holidaymakers.
More than 200 firefighters backed by 11 water bombers and seven helicopters were battling a blaze in Keratea southeast of Athens, Costas Tsigkas, head of the association of Greek firefighter officers, told ERT state television.
"It's a difficult fire," he said, citing gusts of wind and reporting that several communities had been evacuated.
Firefighters discovered the body of an elderly person inside their burned home in Keratea and the wind was hampering water bombers' ability to operate, fire service spokesman Vassilis Vathrakogiannis told a press briefing.
An AFP journalist in the nearby town of Palaia Fokaia, around 45 kilometres (28 miles) south of Athens, saw fire consume a house and thick smoke choke the air.
Firefighters were sprinting to direct hoses and douse the flames, while a helicopter swooped overhead to drop water.
Earlier, a separate blaze on the island of Cephalonia was brought under control, local officials said, while the situation "has improved" on the Peloponnese peninsula west of Athens, Vathrakogiannis announced.
The civil protection ministry had said wind gusts would reach 88 kilometres an hour, especially in the southern Aegean and the Sea of Crete.
National weather service EMY said the gusts would weaken after midnight, but the civil protection ministry placed several areas under the highest alert for wildfires on Saturday, including the Attica region, which includes Athens.
The coastguard had earlier said a Vietnamese man and woman from a cruise ship group had died at the Sarakiniko beach on the tourist island of Milos in the Cyclades.
"The man and woman were found unconscious in the sea and were taken to the local health centre," a coastguard spokeswoman said.
"The woman fell in the water and the man apparently tried to save her."
- 'Left stranded' -
The gales confined many ferries to port, the main mode of transport connecting thousands of islands and their crucial tourism sector.
The coastguard said most ferries were unable to depart on schedule from Piraeus and other Athens ports, especially to the Cyclades or Dodecanese islands. Several services were cancelled and others postponed.
At Piraeus, hundreds of travellers crowded outside a ferry bound for the Cycladic islands of Paros and Naxos, waiting for news on a possible departure.
Nearby, stranded travellers surrounded by rucksacks and suitcases formed a huge queue outside a ticket office and made desperate phone calls hoping to make rearrangements to save their journeys.
"There's huge lines, huge commotion, everyone's waiting in the sun and it's a very tough time," said Philip Elias, an American tourist.
Maritime connections with the Saronic islands near Athens including Aegina, Hydra, Poros and Spetses and the Ionian Sea were unaffected, the coastguard said.
Strong winds are common in Greece at this time of year, and firefighters have already faced several major blazes this summer, including on the islands of Evia and Chios as well as in the western Peloponnese.
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