French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said Tuesday that the country has recorded 14,000 fire starts since the beginning of the 2026 wildfire season. He said security forces have made 402 arrests this season over fires that were either criminal or accidental, including 156 minors, with 36 people placed in pretrial detention.
Arson suspected in Var blaze
The prosecutor's office in Draguignan said Tuesday it was seriously considering the hypothesis of deliberate fire-setting behind the violent flare-up that struck Friday south of the large fire near the Gros Bessillon massif, which had been contained days earlier. The office said an investigation into the causes of the fire was underway. More than 1,000 firefighters were still working Tuesday to put out the blaze, which had burned 1,850 hectares.
Gros Bessillon fire declared "contained"
Earlier Tuesday, Lieutenant Colonel Laurent Lopez, who commands rescue operations in the Var, announced that the Gros Bessillon fire was now contained after burning 1,800 hectares. He said the aim was to be reassuring. The Var prefecture reported the fire was no longer progressing after a calm night in which firefighters kept treating the fire's edges, though it urged continued caution. About 1,000 firefighters and 250 vehicles remained on site.
Firefighter numbers in the Var were reduced from 1,500 the day before to 1,000, backed by air resources stationed at Hyères, including two Canadair planes and four helicopters, two of them water bombers, one heavy and one command aircraft. On Monday evening, Var prefect Simon Babre had told BFMTV the fire was still not fixed and remained problematic on its 14th day. Overnight, 1,500 firefighters were mobilized, backed by two Canadair and five helicopters that carried out about 100 water drops. The fire had burned 4,600 hectares in total, with wind continuing to blow, though less intensely, up to 40 kilometers per hour.
The heat made firefighting difficult. Météo-France placed 16 departments under an orange heat alert Tuesday, with temperatures of 31 to 34 degrees Celsius inland and 30 to 32 degrees on the Var coast, a temporary dip expected from possible storms before temperatures rise again from Wednesday.
Drôme fire spreads across Claps massif
A forest fire broke out the evening before around the Claps massif near the town of Bellegarde-en-Diois. The Drôme prefecture said in a nightly update that rescue resources were immediately deployed to limit the fire's spread, which had by then burned 80 hectares, with seven Canadair and two Dash aircraft mobilized. By Tuesday morning, the fire had burned 110 hectares, with several hundred more potentially threatened, the prefecture said. Defense measures were engaged on the left flank while the right flank remained inaccessible, and a bulldozer arrived overnight to build access tracks.
By afternoon, fueled by unfavorable weather, the fire regained intensity in what the association Prévention et signalement feux de forêt called a very evolving situation. A total of 328 firefighters were mobilized, backed by four Canadair and two Dash-8 planes, with reinforcements on the way to bring the force to 450.
Ukraine sends firefighters to Gironde
Kyiv dispatched 70 Ukrainian firefighters to help extinguish the megafire that has burned 42,000 hectares near Bordeaux. President Emmanuel Macron thanked Ukraine for the gesture. Gironde's wildfire alert level was lowered Tuesday from red to orange.
Pascal Serrier, president of the association Occitalien, is preparing the group's 26th medical aid convoy for Ukraine, due to leave Montauban, in the Tarn-et-Garonne department, in September. He delivered water tanks to Gironde on Monday without knowing he would cross paths there with the column of 70 Ukrainian firefighters. He described the encounter as an emotional one.
183 homes destroyed in Le Porge
In Le Porge, a day after residents returned to their devastated land, mayor Martial Zaninetti told BFMTV the situation was very painful for a huge number of people who came to see the disaster with their own eyes. Facing a toll of 183 houses completely destroyed, he demanded transparency about how the fire was handled, saying residents needed answers to understand what happened and what decisions were made, calling 183 homes destroyed a true catastrophe.
July was France's hottest month on record
Météo-France said Tuesday that July 2026 was the hottest month, and among the driest, recorded in France since measurements began in 1900. The average temperature of 24.9 degrees Celsius surpassed the previous records set during the August 2003 heatwave, at 24.8 degrees, and July 2006, at 24.4 degrees. The gap above the 1991-2020 average reached 3.8 degrees, matching June.
Firefighter unions demand more resources
A joint statement from a coalition of professional firefighter unions denounced what it called the deterioration of France's civil security system and demanded urgent additional staff and equipment. While acknowledging tributes paid by elected officials, the unions said they refused to let the word hero be used again to hide the reality of a severe lack of resources on the ground. The statement was signed by FA SPP-PATS, the CGT des Sdis, Avenir Secours, SNSPP-PATS, SUD Sdis, FO-SIS, UNSA-SDIS, SPASDIS-CFTC and CFDT Sdis.
Mayor criticized for borrowing fire equipment
The mayor of Aubagne was accused of borrowing rescue equipment to protect his second home, which was threatened by flames in the Var, drawing anger from his political opponents and from firefighters. He defended the move as a citizen's reflex, while critics called it an abuse of public resources.
Greece battles blaze near Athens
Greek firefighters worked through the night into Tuesday against a fire that has raged since Friday northwest of Athens, trying to keep the situation under control, a fire service spokesperson said. Yannis Artopios said Tuesday morning on Ertnews that crews were on the ground for a fifth consecutive day against a very difficult fire. Operations focused on three critical points, according to Ertnews: the southern side toward Louba, the southeast toward the Panachrantou monastery, and the northeast toward Agia Paraskevi and Agios Nektarios, where ground forces worked all night to contain active pockets of fire and prevent new flare-ups.
