France Records 11,000 Land Fires, Affecting 35,000 Hectares

JAKARTA - France surpassed the total area burned in 2025 by recording nearly 11,000 land fires since the beginning of the year with an estimated 35,000 hectares of land affected.

"This means that over the past three weeks, firefighters across the country have had to deal with between 250 and 300 fires simultaneously," said Director General of Civil Protection Julien Marion while accompanying President Emmanuel Macron's visit to Fontainebleau Forest on Thursday, July 16, reported by ANTARA.

Marion said each of the three active forest fires had devoured more than 1,000 hectares of land, although the government had deployed large-scale firefighting resources.

The risk of forest fires is no longer limited to the south of France. Around 50 departments are now classified as high-risk forest areas, including Cotes-d'Armor in Brittany and Seine-et-Marne near Paris.

According to Marion, the widespread high-risk areas forced the authorities to deploy firefighting resources to a much wider area, thus adding operational challenges.

Based on data from the French National Forest Office, nearly 15,000 fires throughout 2025 occurred in France. The fire burned about 30,000 hectares of forest and other vegetation.

Of that total, about 1,800 were classified as forest fires, with an affected area of almost 20,000 hectares, including a major fire in the Corbieres Mountains in the Aude Department, southern France, in August.

Referring to the investigation into the fire in the Fontainebleau Forest, which authorities say was deliberately set off, Macron said a number of suspects had been arrested.

"The message is clear: no one will be left alone," he said, pledging zero tolerance for those responsible for the fires.

Macron also said France was working with five other European countries to make a joint order for Canadair firefighting aircraft. According to him, this cooperation has succeeded in reviving the production of aircraft that had previously been stopped.

France currently operates 12 Canadair air bombers and eight Dash planes.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said the fleet had grown to about 40 aircraft with the addition of chartered planes and water bomber helicopters.