Tens of thousands of French wildfire evacuees allowed to return home as cooler weather moves in

French authorities gave the go-ahead Thursday for 84,000 evacuees forced out by a monster wildfire to go back to their homes in southwest France.

French authorities gave the go-ahead Thursday for 84,000 evacuees forced out by a monster wildfire to go back to their homes in southwest France, the strongest sign yet that firefighters are turning a corner in their battle against the flames that have burned an area four times the size of Paris.

Europe is enduring one of its hottest summers on record, with wildfires breaking out in areas stretching from the Atlantic coast to the eastern Mediterranean and hundreds of thousands of people ordered to evacuate from homes and vacation destinations.

Firefighters fanned out to battle infernos in places like England, Spain, and Turkey, while in Romania, officials at the state-owned Cernavoda nuclear power plant shut down both of its reactors because of the low level of Danube River waters used to cool them.

The returns authorized in France covered nine localities that had been evacuated, including several where firefighters and water-dropping planes had battled flare-ups just the day before. Higher humidity, cooler temperatures and slight rain have raised hopes that Thursday could be a decisive step on the way to vanquishing the fire.

“We’re on the right track,” said Sophie Brocas, prefect of the Gironde region, which includes the city of Bordeaux.