A relentless, record-breaking heat wave and prolonged drought intensified their hold across Europe on Monday, with water-dropping aircraft deployed over major wildfires in Greece, French firefighters working to contain a blaze in Provence, and the United Kingdom logging its driest July in nearly two centuries.

In southern Greece, strong winds returned late Monday, driving flames into clusters of mountain homes, destroying farms and property, and forcing the closure of a highway. Wildfires burning west of Athens breached containment lines just a day after a midair collision between two helicopters claimed the lives of two crew members — a Greek and a Danish national — on Sunday. Two others were hospitalized in the incident. All four individuals were private operators contracted by the Greek firefighting service.

More than 1,000 people have been evacuated from areas surrounding the seaside resort of Porto Germeno and other communities west of the capital, including over 250 individuals rescued by boat from nearby beaches. Officials warned that areas around Athens remain at high risk through the week as temperatures are projected to climb further.

"This is a difficult fire that has troubled us," said Fire Service spokesman Yiannis Artopios, noting that 12 water-dropping planes and 11 helicopters were deployed to the area on Monday.

Authorities attributed the blaze to a faulty power line originating from a wind farm. Two contractors have been arrested on charges of negligent arson in connection with the incident.

In France, thousands of evacuees were permitted to return to their homes or holiday accommodations on Monday after a massive wildfire was brought to containment. More than 224,000 people had previously fled — what officials described as the country's largest civilian evacuation outside of wartime, carried out during the peak weeks of Europe's summer travel season when coastal regions along the Atlantic seaboard are at maximum occupancy. The wildfire consumed approximately 420 square kilometers (162 square miles), making it France's largest wildfire on record. Firefighters in the Bordeaux region continued monitoring for potential flare-ups within a still-smoldering burn scar roughly four times the size of Paris.

Monday's return encompassed the Cap Ferret peninsula, a popular tourist destination along the Atlantic coast, and Le Porge — the municipality most severely affected by the fire, where 183 homes were destroyed. Campsites in the area remain closed.

Meanwhile, a second wildfire in Provence did not intensify overnight but remained uncontained as of Monday, with firefighters and local authorities anticipating stronger winds. Approximately 1,500 firefighters, backed by water-dropping helicopters, continued reinforcing fire lines along the perimeter of a blaze that has scorched roughly 18 square kilometers (7 square miles).

The United Kingdom's Met Office reported on Monday that a prolonged heat wave and rainfall deficit produced the driest July in England and Wales in nearly 200 years of recordkeeping, based on provisional statistics. All of Wales and more than half of England are officially in drought. Wales tied its record for the warmest mean July temperature, while England and the broader U.K. recorded their second-warmest July. The dry spell followed earlier heat waves in May and June, compounding soil moisture deficits across agricultural regions.

In the Netherlands, firefighters battled a large forest fire on Monday in the southern province of Limburg as the country endured another day of sweltering, dry conditions. The national railway operator suspended train service between two towns in the area. The Dutch air force deployed two Chinook helicopters fitted with large water containers to support firefighting efforts — a military mobilization reflecting the scale of the blaze for a temperate nation where large woodland fires are uncommon. Local media reported that a campsite was evacuated due to hazardous air quality from a substantial smoke plume.

The European Forest Fire Information System indicated that wildfire risk remains elevated across parts of the continent through Aug. 5, extending even to traditionally cooler northern nations. The simultaneous outbreaks from Mediterranean coastlines to the Low Countries and the British Isles mark one of the broadest geographic sweeps of wildfire activity in a single European summer.

Despite enhanced detection capabilities and deepened cooperation among European Union members, Greece and other countries along Europe's Mediterranean coast continue to face devastating wildfires each summer as heat wave periods grow longer. According to the European Union's Copernicus climate service, Europe is warming faster than any other continent on Earth, heating at more than twice the global average rate since the 1980s. Rising temperatures and extended drought conditions leave vegetation drier and more combustible, enabling fires to spread more rapidly and burn with greater intensity.

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Corbet reported from Paris. Associated Press writers Elena Becatoros in Athens, Thomas Adamson in Paris, Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, and Brian Melley in London contributed to this report.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.