Aldea del Fresno (Spain) (AFP) - Thousands who fled huge wildfires in Spain returned home on Wednesday while in France firefighters battled raging flames as a new heatwave gripped the region.

The neighbouring countries have been gripped by some of the worst forest fires in living memory over the past week, burning vast areas and forcing tens of thousands from their homes.

Spain lifted remaining evacuation orders for Avila province and for the last two towns near Madrid that had been evacuated on Wednesday. While some evacuees returned to untouched homes, others found only devastation.

“I’m happy – I couldn’t wait to come home and have my coffee and breakfast,” said Maria Jesus Perez Blanca, in her seventies. She was one of about a dozen returnees at the cafes of Aldea del Fresno, west of Madrid on Wednesday morning.

But 12 kilometres (eight miles) away in Pelayos de la Presa, David Rodriguez was knocking down the scorched remains of his home.

“It’s a disaster. Just look at it,” he said. “All my memories, everything I had was here. My dad built it 40 years ago and everything has been lost.”

Officials said on Wednesday that better overnight conditions had helped crews stabilise the fire area, and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the coming hours would be “decisive” in the battle to extinguish all the remaining flames.

In France, the Gironde region reported a second calm night and said the massive fire west of France’s wine-making capital of Bordeaux remained stable despite a spike in temperatures on Wednesday as the fourth heatwave of the summer roasted the area.

“If the night goes well, we can reasonably be more optimistic for tomorrow and the days to come,” Sophie Brocas, a senior regional official, said.

In the southeastern region of Var, however, more than 600 people were forced to flee after a fresh fire erupted in the region nestled along France’s Mediterranean coast between the cities of Marseille and Nice.

The new fire erupted less than a day after another blaze in the Var was brought under control.

- Europe-wide disaster -

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 (511,000 acres) 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.

While the current focus is on Western Europe, the EU warned this week that fire-prone conditions would spread towards the centre of the continent in the coming days.

Emergency crews were already tackling a blaze on the Greek island of Paros. Two firefighters died fighting fires in Crete and a third near the Peloponnese port of Gytheio.

Fires in Turkey have already forced the evacuation of hundreds of people around tourist beaches in the south, with hundreds of firefighters tackling the flames.