2 firefighters die in Greece as others fight massive blaze in France

Two firefighters died Wednesday while battling a blaze on the Greek island of Crete, officials said, while crews in southern France worked to extinguish a massive, uncontained wildfire that had spread to roughly four times the size of Paris. Across Europe, firefighters confronted a dangerous combination of high temperatures, drought and powerful winds, compromising containment efforts.

The deaths on Crete brought a fatal new dimension to a wildfire emergency stretching from the Atlantic coast to the eastern Mediterranean. At the peak of the evacuations, a third of a million people were driven from homes and vacation sites in France and Spain.

In France's Gironde region, authorities said the blaze had not spread during a calm night. But temperatures forecast to reach 40 degrees Celsius, or 104 degrees Fahrenheit, and strengthening afternoon winds threatened to turn that respite into only a brief reprieve.

The landscape was so combustible that investigators believe routine brush-clearing work near a high-voltage line may have sparked the inferno, even though the work appeared to comply with regulations.

At the command center in Lège, firefighters bent over maps spread across a car hood, tracking three danger zones: northern Cap-Ferret; the wooded corridor around Marcheprime, Cestas and Saint-Jean-d'Illac; and a military site near Martignas, where a major outbreak forced a large deployment.

More than 2,200 firefighters and over 20 aircraft remained mobilized, backed by crews from across France and European partners.

"We strike quickly and strike hard at any new smoke emissions," Gironde fire commander Matthieu Jomain said.

Beyond the command center, civilians were trying to hold the line themselves. At Souge, volunteers flooded the edges of dirt tracks while a local digger driver plowed through still-burning soil, trying to keep flames from crossing back when the expected west wind arrived. In Lacanau, residents pumped water from a lake into tanks headed for hot spots and firefighters' cisterns.

"If one day the fire starts in our neck of the woods, I know very well that all the people here would do the same for us," said Flavien Dubuch, 33, who drove from Saint-Émilion with his father to help.

Fire crews in France and Spain have battled raging wildfires this summer, which collectively forced more than 300,000 people to evacuate between both countries. In Gironde, more than 250,000 were ordered to evacuate over the weekend, as dry conditions and strong winds began to complicate firefighting efforts. Authorities said the evacuation order was among th