France wildfire burn area passes mid-July record, monitor says

Wildfires burned more than 42,000 hectares, or 103,000 acres, of land in France by mid-July this year, surpassing the previous record set in 2022, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.

The burned area is about four times the size of Paris. The area burned so far in 2026 has already exceeded the total for all of 2025. France's all-time annual record is 66,300 hectares burned in 2022.

Wildfires in the first two weeks of July alone burned nearly 15,000 hectares. The fires affected Fontainebleau forest near Paris, southern France and Corsica.

Effis also recorded major wildfires in February, when controlled burns are usually carried out for forest and land management. The European monitor uses satellite imagery to detect burned areas and records only fires covering at least 30 hectares.

Its method differs from that used by French authorities, who said Monday that just under 40,000 hectares had burned since the start of the year.

A historic heatwave across much of Europe in June has caused severe drought. Authorities have warned that rising temperatures this week mean an increased risk of more fires.

Across the European Union, just under 200,000 hectares have burned by mid-July this year. That is slightly less than the 235,000 hectares burned by the same point in 2025, the record year.

Wildfires, growing more intense as a result of climate change, burned more than one million hectares across the EU in 2025 for the first time since Effis began keeping records in 2006.