GALE-FORCE winds have driven wildfires through a Greek seaside resort, forcing hundreds to flee by sea.

While the wildfire emergency has eased across much of western Europe, its most dangerous front shifted to Greece.

Fire broke out Friday near the coastal village of Agios Vasileios. About 300 people were evacuated by sea, and authorities issued further evacuation orders Saturday.

Minas Tzortzanis, a farmer and local resident, said: “There are no words to explain what has happened. Destruction. Total destruction.”

Nearly 500 firefighters battled on Saturday to protect Porto Germeno, a popular resort on the Gulf of Corinth, as flames tore through a thick pine forest.

In south-west France, firefighters held a vast wildfire within its perimeter, with about 198,000 people now allowed home after what may have been the country’s largest peacetime evacuation.

Major fires in Spain were also no longer advancing, and Portugal’s main blaze was under control.

A second French fire stopped expanding overnight after racing across four square miles in six hours Friday — “faster than a horse at full gallop,” according to the prefecture. But the fire remained active Saturday and 2,500 people were still unable to return home.

The gains in western Europe marked a sharp turn from the height of the crisis, when fires in France and Spain alone drove a third of a million people from homes and holiday accommodation and stretched firefighters, aircraft and emergency services across simultaneous emergencies.

Europe is Earth’s fastest-warming continent, heating at more than twice the global average since the 1980s, according to the European Union’s Copernicus climate service. 

Rising temperatures and prolonged drought leave vegetation drier and more combustible, allowing fires to spread faster and burn more intensely.