Paris, Aug 4 (EFE).- 402 people have been arrested in France in connection with the record-breaking wildfires that have broken out throughout the summer, French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said Tuesday.
Speaking to the media, Nuñez specified that 156 of those arrested are minors.
Since the start of the season, 14,540 fires have been recorded, burning 120,000 hectares, the minister said.
The massive wildfire in the Gironde department (southwest) alone burned 42,000 hectares in the Arcachon Bay area and as far as the outskirts of Bordeaux in late July.
The 2026 fires have broken the record for the last half-century, surpassing 90,000 hectares lost in 1976 and the 72,000 destroyed in 2022.
Although “the situation is improving,” “we remain vigilant, of course, since weather conditions continue to be conducive to wildfires,” said the interior minister.
On Tuesday, weather services had placed 16 of the country’s 100 departments on orange alert for heat, particularly in the southeast, along the Mediterranean coast, and in the Rhône basin.
The main active fire on Tuesday remained the one in the Gros Bessillon massif in the Var department, about 50 kilometers north of the Mediterranean port of Toulon, which began on July 21 and, after burning 4,500 hectares in ten days, reignited last Friday.
Since then, it has scorched another 1,850 hectares of Mediterranean forest, and on Tuesday, some 1,000 firefighters were working to extinguish it, supported from the air by two Canadair-type water bombers and water-dropping helicopters. EFE
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