France has suffered its worst wildfire season on record, with 116,085 hectares burned since January, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has said. The figure surpassed the previous record of 72,000 hectares set in 2022, with the usual August peak of the fire season still to come.
Lecornu said 13,566 fires or fire starts had been counted since the beginning of the year. Nine out of 10 were caused by human activity, he added, most of them through carelessness such as discarded cigarette ends, barbecues or building work carried out without precautions.
Not every blaze was accidental, the Prime Minister said. Deliberately setting a fire is a criminal offence in France punishable by up to 15 years in prison, and 162 people have been detained on suspicion of arson since July 6.
Security forces were fully mobilised to identify those responsible and would bring them before the courts, Lecornu said. He urged householders to clear vegetation around their properties and to postpone outdoor work in high-risk conditions.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said seven of the 12 Canadair water bombers in the French fleet were undergoing maintenance. He rejected criticism that the aerial fleet had been neglected, arguing that it had been diversified rather than left to age.
The most serious fire, west of Bordeaux in the Gironde department of south-western France, has burned 42,000 hectares and destroyed 240 homes since it broke out on July 22. Around 220,000 people have been evacuated in the department, with a further 30,000 moved in neighbouring Landes.
President Emmanuel Macron visited the fire and rescue operations centre in Bordeaux on July 27 and told emergency responders the country was facing its “most difficult” situation since the Second World War. He warned that the coming weeks would be tough and pledged to rebuild the burned areas with a different kind of forest.
France activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism on July 5. The European Commission said seven planes and four helicopters from Czechia, Croatia, Germany, Portugal, Slovakia, Sweden and Turkey were now operating in the country, most of them drawn from the rescEU firefighting reserve.
In Spain, six planes from Greece, Italy and Turkey have been mobilised alongside 134 personnel and 41 vehicles from Portugal. The EU Copernicus satellite service is producing emergency maps and a Commission liaison officer has been sent to Bordeaux to coordinate incoming assistance.
More than 300,000 people have been evacuated in France and Spain combined, in one of the largest such operations Europe has seen. The rescEU strategic reserve holds 22 planes and five helicopters across 12 member states.
