Record Heat and Drought Fuel France’s “Red Forest” Wildfire, Now One of the Country’s Largest on Record
Orbis Weather — July 30, 2026
A massive wildfire burning in the pine forests of Gironde, near Bordeaux in southwest France, has scorched an estimated 42,000–46,000 hectares since igniting on July 22 — making it one of the largest fires in French history. International trackers have labeled the blaze the “Red Forest fire,” though French authorities refer to it as the Incendie de Saumos, after the commune where it began.
The fire’s scale traces directly back to an extraordinary run of weather. France just recorded its hottest June on record, averaging 22.7°C — 3.8°C above the 1991–2020 baseline — with Bordeaux hitting 42.5°C during a mid-June heatwave. The month also closed with a nationwide rainfall deficit of nearly 50 percent, leaving soil and vegetation critically dry. Forecasters note that hot sun stripped moisture from dead plant material, priming it to ignite, while shifting winds drove flames into fresh vegetation and carried embers ahead of the main fire front, allowing it to leap containment lines.
As of Thursday afternoon, roughly 3,300 firefighters, 24 aircraft, and 1,500 supporting military personnel remained on the fire lines. About 144,000 residents were evacuated at the peak, though nine more communes — including Mios, Le Barp, and Cestas — were cleared to return home Thursday. The fire has destroyed 240 homes and injured 231 firefighters; the burned area has stopped expanding, and rain over the past day brought welcome relief to crews.
That relief may be short-lived. A fresh heat warning covers Gironde, with inland temperatures forecast to climb to 33–35°C by midweek, while Spain — battling its own fires further south — braces for a fourth heatwave of the summer with highs above 40°C. Officials caution that smoldering vegetation, rising heat, and falling humidity could still spark new outbreaks along the fire’s vast perimeter.
The blaze is part of an unusually destructive 2026 European fire season, with more than 434,000 hectares burned across the continent so far this year. Scientists point to a broader climate trend: Western Europe is warming at roughly twice the global average, about 0.56°C per decade since the mid-1990s, a shift that has made spring soil drought roughly five times more likely than in the past.
Sources: GDACS, Préfecture de la Gironde, World Weather Online, NPR
