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. "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 away in Pelayos de la Presa, David Rodriguez was knocking down the scorched remains of his home. In France, some 92,000 hectares have burned over the same period – the largest area ever documented in records that date back two decades.