THOUSANDS EVACUATED AS SOUTHERN FRANCE CONTINUES TO BATTLE WILDFIRES

Tue 07 July 2026:

A total of 12,000 people were evacuated on Tuesday as the wildfire in France’s southern Pyrenees-Orientales department continued to spread, according to broadcaster BFMTV.

Authorities told BFMTV that 12,000 people had to be evacuated due to the spread of the fire in the commune of Trevillach that forced the deployment of around 800 firefighters.

The prefect said the Pyrenees-Orientales wildfire has not yet been contained, burning 4,900 hectares (about 12,100 acres).

“We hope to contain the fire as quickly as possible, but I don’t think we’ll be able to do it today, given that the weather conditions are the same as yesterday,” said Colonel Eric Belgioino, head of the Pyrenees-Orientales Fire and Rescue Service.

The wildfire risk is stated as “very high” in three departments and “high” in 61 others, while an orange heat wave alert has been issued across 61 departments for Tuesday as temperatures are forecast to range from 35 degrees Celsius to 38 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit to 100 degrees Fahrenheit).

In southwestern France, highs of up to 41C (106F) are expected.

France’s national weather service said the heat is expected to persist through the end of the week.

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“Nearly 14,500 hectares (about 35,800 acres) have already burned this season—almost three times more than at the same point last year,” Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu told the National Assembly on Monday.

Early summer heatwaves in France and across western Europe in May and June have scorched vast areas of land, making them particularly ‌vulnerable to wildfires this year.

The Trevillach blaze was burning in the vicinity of the third stage of the Tour de France, leading to its closure to the public on Monday to allow firefighters easy access to the area, according to Tour de France director Christian Prudhomme.

The motorcade of vehicles that follows the race ‌was also kept to a minimum, he said. The stage, which is 196 kilometres long, began in the Spanish city of Granollers and ends in Les Angles, in the Pyrénées-Orientales region of France.

On the Spanish side of the border, the fire ravaged 2,200 hectares – 97 percent of them in the protected natural area of Les Gavarres – but Catalan authorities said late on Saturday that it was stable and would be completely extinguished during the week.

Police have arrested an employee of a company contracted by Catalonia’s regional government who is suspected of having sparked the wildfire by using an angle grinder at the side of a road.

South of Catalonia, in ⁠the eastern Castellon province, 500 people were evacuated after a wildfire entered the Sierra ⁠de Espadan national park, home to a significant cork oak forest.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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