France wildfires burn 25,000 hectares, official says

Wildfires in France have burned more than 25,000 hectares since the start of the year, roughly double the area recorded by the same date last year, civil security director general Julien Marion said on July 10.

Marion said France had recorded a little over 8,000 fire outbreaks so far this year. The burned area is equivalent to nearly 62,000 acres.

France was facing its third heatwave since May, with part of western France under a more severe heat warning and fires burning in several parts of the country over the past week.

The government said it would open cooling centres for vulnerable people, including elderly and homeless people. Government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon said 6,000 of the 30,000 air conditioning units promised to hospitals had been delivered and installed.

Official figures cited in the supplied material said France recorded more than 2,000 excess deaths during the June heatwave and 300 during high temperatures in late May.

France's High Council for Climate warned that the country's policies to address global warming were “insufficient.” Meteo-France forecast that high temperatures would continue until Bastille Day on July 14.