Hundreds of firefighters battling wildfire in southern France amid improved weather conditions

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MARTIGUES, France (Reuters) -Nearly 1,000 firefighters and helicopters battled a wildfire about 40 kilometres (25 miles) northwest of France’s second-largest city Marseille on Friday, but officials said lower temperatures and increased humidity had improved the situation

The 240-hectare (593 acres) wildfire flared up a week after a separate conflagration reached the northwestern outskirts of Marseille, forcing people to evacuate or into lockdown and temporarily shuttering the area’s airport.

Pierre Bepoix, the colonel of rescue operations and deputy director for the area’s firefighters, said 150 people had been evacuated, but firefighters had managed to save 150 homes and portions of the area’s forests. 

“It was a fire that swept through relatively dense vegetation … which made our work particularly complicated,” Bepoix told Reuters. “Obviously, priority was given to the preservation and protection of these homes and the lives that could be in these buildings.”

Local officials said in a statement that 120 homes had been threatened by the fire, adding that it was not possible yet to identify any possible damage to them, and that two firefighters had been injured.

Meanwhile in Spain, a wildfire that broke out on Thursday evening in the central Toledo province and could be seen from downtown Madrid, ravaged 3,200 hectares of woodland. 

Regional emergency services said early on Friday firefighters had secured the perimeter, though there were concerns over strong winds and high temperatures forecast throughout the day. 

(Reporting by Manon Cruz in Martigues and Makini Brice in Paris; additional reporting by David Latona in Madrid; Editing by Sharon Singleton)