France Wildfire Trends: 119,000 Hectares and a Record 2026

Four Canadair CL-415 water bombers over southern France
File photo: four Sécurité civile Canadair CL-415 water bombers at work in southern France, August 2021. Photo: Stephan Sprinz via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
Record 2026 seasonUpdated 20 October 2026

Trend summary

  • By 31 July 2026 France had 119,000 hectares burned and 14,320 forest fires since January, according to the Ministry of the Interior. The interior minister called the total a historic record; it is well above the roughly 72,000 ha burned in all of 2022.
  • The Saumos fire in Gironde, which started on 22 July 2026, burned about 42,000 hectares near the Arcachon basin and led to the preventive evacuation of about 220,000 people.
  • In 2022 about 72,000 hectares burned (62,000 ha of forest, 10,000 ha of other vegetation). The two Landiras fires covered nearly 20,000 ha. In 2025 about 30,000 ha burned, a third of it in one fire in the Aude.
  • Nine in ten fires are started by people. A 2023 law tightened brush-clearing rules and smoking bans. The state fleet of 12 Canadair water bombers is ageing: on 24 July 2026 only five were operational.
119,000 haburned 1 Jan–31 Jul 2026 (Interior)
42,000 haSaumos fire, Gironde, July 2026
72,000 haburned in the 2022 season
12Canadair water bombers, ~30 years old

What the numbers show

France’s long-run wildfire figures come from two databases: Prométhée for the Mediterranean region and BDIFF for the rest of the country (and for the Mediterranean since 2022). Together they cover metropolitan France, including Corsica. Burned forest topped 70,000 hectares in 1989, 1991 and 2003, then fell sharply (SDES, Chiffres clés des risques naturels 2023). A 2019 Senate report put the annual average at 46,000 ha over the past 40 years, against 11,800 ha in the latest decade (Senate). In 2017, 24,500 ha burned, over 85% of it in the Mediterranean zone (Ministry of the Interior). Then 2022 broke the pattern: 62,000 ha of forest and 10,000 ha of other vegetation burned. The two Landiras fires in Gironde covered nearly 20,000 ha, and the La Teste-de-Buch fire nearly 6,000 ha, forcing about 22,000 people to leave (SDES). A 2026 study found that burned area in south-west France in 2022 was 14 times the 2006–2023 average (Zhu et al., NHESS 2026). On EFFIS satellite data, which counts fires of 30 ha or more, 2022 reached 66,300 ha, the previous annual record (AFP via Macau Business).

After a quiet 2023 and 2024, about 30,000 ha of vegetation burned in 2025, including nearly 20,000 ha of forest. That was roughly double the 2006–2021 average, the National Forests Office (ONF) said. One fire, which started in Ribaute (Aude) on 5 August 2025, burned 11,300 ha of the Corbières massif. It was the worst fire on France’s Mediterranean coast in at least 50 years (ONF via Banque des Territoires). It killed one resident and destroyed or damaged 25 homes (AFP via Paris Match). In 2026, EFFIS counted more than 42,000 ha burned by mid-July, already more than in all of 2025 (AFP via ProtoThema). By 31 July the Interior ministry counted 119,000 ha and 14,320 forest fires since the start of the year (Ministry of the Interior). The Saumos fire alone burned about 42,000 ha (AFP via Boursorama). The Gendarmerie said the south-west had 63% of the burned area but only 20% of fires (Gendarmerie). The ministry’s 2026 totals say “in France” and do not state whether overseas departments are included.

What is driving it

Climate is making extreme fire weather more likely. One attribution study found that human-caused climate change made the hot, dry conditions of July 2022 in south-west France about twice as likely, with a return period of 13 years in today’s climate (Lanet et al., npj Climate and Atmospheric Science 2024). Across south-west Europe in 2022, fuel dryness and fire weather hit record levels, and large fires started in June–July, earlier than usual (Rodrigues et al., 2022 preprint). The risk is also spreading north and west: in 2022 the Atlantic pine forests lost far more biomass than Mediterranean forests (Vallet et al., 2023). A Senate mission warned that burned area in the Mediterranean region could rise 80% by 2050, and that nearly half of French heath and forest could face high fire risk, against a third in 2010 (Banque des Territoires). People start most fires: the government says nine in ten are of human origin (Ministry of the Interior), and 474 people had been arrested over fires by mid-August 2026 (Gendarmerie).

France’s strategy is to attack every new fire within ten minutes (Senate). Prevention is weaker: compliance with compulsory brush-clearing is often below 30% (Senate, 2022). After the 2022 fires, Law No. 2023-580 of 10 July 2023 required a national fire-defence strategy, tightened brush-clearing duties, banned smoking in and near forests during the risk season and set building limits in high-danger zones (Ineris AIDA). The state fleet has 12 Canadair, 8 Dash and 3 Beechcraft aircraft, plus helicopters, rented aircraft and 27 refilling bases (Ministry of the Interior). The Canadairs are nearly 30 years old. The President promised in October 2022 to expand the fleet to 16, but on 24 July 2026 only five were operational (National Assembly). Two new DHC-515s funded through the EU’s rescEU programme were due in 2026 and 2027, at about €55 million each (Senate).

Recent cases

  • 8 September 2026: A National Assembly written question said only five of France’s 12 Canadair water bombers were operational on 24 July 2026, at the height of the Gironde fire, against a 95% availability target (National Assembly).
  • 14 August 2026: The Gendarmerie launched Operation Nemus, sending about 300 gendarmes to patrol the most fire-prone forests. It said 257 large fires had burned more than 75,000 ha and 474 people had been arrested (Gendarmerie).
  • 26 July 2026: The Saumos fire in Gironde, which started on 22 July, reached about 42,000 ha. About 220,000 people were evacuated, one of the largest wildfire evacuations in France (AFP via Paris Match).

Press releases and official reports, 2023–2026

Five key releases a year for the last four years, newest first. Most come from national bodies such as ONISR, the Ministry of the Interior, Santé publique France, the BEA and BEAmer investigation bureaus and the Banque de France, from the Senate and National Assembly, and from research journals; a few news reports are included where they are the clearest public record of an event. Headlines are our English translations of the French originals. Releases from 2007–2022 are in the expandable list after 2023.

2026

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2023

View 20 years of major French wildfire press releases (2007–2026)70 more from 2007–2022, up to five a year, newest first

2022

2021

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2015

2014

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2012

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Many years list fewer than five items, and some have none yet. Several official archives (Légifrance, older ministry pages and PDFs) could not be opened when we compiled this list, and we only list items we could open and check. We are still adding to these lists. Where a page shows no date, the date comes from the publisher’s own index; annual reports with no printed date are listed under the year they cover or were released.

Photo list

Satellite image of wildfire smoke over south-west France, July 2022
NASA satellite image of smoke from the Gironde wildfires, 15 July 2022. Photo: NASA MODIS Land Rapid Response Team via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
A Sécurité civile Dash 8 water bomber at Bordeaux-Mérignac
File photo: a Sécurité civile Dash 8 Q400 MR water bomber at Bordeaux-Mérignac airport, September 2019. Photo: Dylan Agbagni via Wikimedia Commons, CC0.

Related on ROR Labs

How this page is built. Figures come from the official statistical releases and research linked above; where agencies publish provisional numbers we say so, because they are revised. National death data come from Inserm’s cause-of-death centre (CépiDc) and take two to three years to finalise, and some figures cover metropolitan France only while others include the overseas departments, so we say which year, area and source each figure covers. Money is given in euros. Headlines and quotes are our translations from French. Photos are public-domain or Creative Commons images credited in each caption; file photos are illustrative and are not from the events described unless the caption says so. This page tracks trends and is not personal safety, medical, legal or financial advice.