Macron to chair wildfire crisis meeting as France reports 115,000 hectares burned

French President Emmanuel Macron was due to chair a crisis cabinet meeting on Monday as wildfires continued across southwest France and parts of Spain and Italy.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said about 115,000 hectares had burned in France since the beginning of the year. He described the total as far above anything previously recorded and said the country was fighting between 30 and 40 wildfires each day.

Local authorities said the fire in the southwestern Gironde region remained broadly stable overnight, with no major developments.

The Gironde authority banned overnight holiday camps, including Scouts’ trips and camps for people with disabilities.

Nunez said conditions remained very unfavourable in Gironde, Landes and the Mediterranean region of Var.

Around 2,500 firefighters, including a Swiss team, had been deployed in Gironde alongside 1,500 military personnel and about 1,200 police officers.

Gironde prefect Sophie Brocas said 220,000 evacuees would not be allowed to return home until the fire was under control. She urged tourists not to travel to the region and said normal work would not resume on Monday in affected towns.

Brocas warned that conditions could worsen on Tuesday as temperatures were expected to rise.

A spokesperson for the National Firefighters Federation said the southwest France fire had created a pyrocumulonimbus, or fire cloud, that had never previously been seen in the country. Such clouds can form when wildfire-heated air rises rapidly and can generate winds that worsen fires.