This month has seen France and Spain grappling with devastating wildfires that some describe as apocalyptic. The blazes have ravaged both buildings and forests, fueled by a historic heat wave across Europe which has shattered temperature records in several regions and tragically resulted in thousands of fatalities. Yet, the searing heatwave tells only part of the story behind these fiery disasters.
One of the most affected areas last week was the iconic Fontainebleau Forest, located near Paris. The blaze incinerated 2,000 hectares (approximately 4,942 acres) of valuable woodland. In the midst of the crisis, around 1,000 residents were compelled to evacuate, while 850 firefighters were engaged in battling the inferno. Authorities estimate that extinguishing the flames completely could take weeks.
Recent data from France’s Ministry of Agriculture reveals a startling statistic: human activity is responsible for nine out of every ten wildfires. Common causes include campfires left unattended, discarded cigarettes, and other forms of human negligence. The sweltering heat this year in France and Spain has transformed dry grasslands into powder kegs. Both countries have laws protecting certain lands from being cleared, a factor that complicates matters. As Daniel Lacalle, chief economist at Tressis investment in Madrid, explained to News Media, “Policies aimed at nature conservation and development have, in some cases, made it difficult to remove accumulated brush.”
Firefighters undertake controlled burns in the Fontainebleau Forest on July 15, 2026, in an effort to create crucial firebreaks. They have successfully contained a fire that erupted on July 12, 2026, in what was once a royal hunting ground. Authorities suspect arson as the cause, and the inferno has scorched thousands of acres. (Pierre Crom/Getty Images)
In the United States, the situation is strikingly similar. The National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) and the U.S. Forest Service report that 85% of wildfires result from human activities. Yet, lightning-induced fires, although accounting for a smaller percentage, often consume more land due to their frequent ignitions in isolated, difficult-to-access regions.
France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said experts found 10 points around a little more than half of a mile radius that were used for ignition, according to a report by France Insider. It also found that pattern “suggests a voluntary origin,” the minister reportedly said.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron shakes hands with firefighters at their central command site following a fire in the Fontainebleau Forest, in Noisy-sur-Ecole, in Paris’ Ile-de-France region, on July 16, 2026. (Mohammed Badra/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
France 24 reported that dozens of people have been arrested across the nation for either accidentally or deliberately starting fires. On a visit to the Fontainebleau forest last week, French President Emmanuel Macron said the country “has never faced so many outbreaks of fire across the country since the end of World War II.” He added, according to the France 24 report, “Here, as everywhere else in France, there will be zero tolerance” for arsonists, “because it is, of course, our national territory that is under attack every time a fire breaks out.”
This photograph shows a wildfire raging near houses in Pouzols-Minervois, southwesternFrance, on July 2, 2026. Hundreds of firefighters are battling wildfires in the south that are being fueled by wind, drought and heat. The largest fire is in the Aude department, but there are also fires north of Marseille, where the prime minister is expected to chair a new inter-ministerial crisis task force. (Idriss Bigou-Gilles/AFP via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Spain has been dealing with three separate wildfires, one of which has been stopped. A fire in Zaragoza destroyed 12,000 hectares (29,653 acres) and resulted in the evacuation of six separate villages. Fires in Madrid and Guadalajara impacted at least 2,000 people. “The speed of these fires is something that even the most experienced firefighters are saying they have never seen anything like this,” Lacalle told News Media.
A fire in the Spanish Andalusia region killed at least 13 people, including a 93-year-old woman who was injured in the fire at Los Gallardos.
Flames and smoke rise from a wildfire near the municipality of El Pocico on July 10, 2026, in Almeria, Spain. Emergency crews continue to battle the wildfire in Spain’s southern province of Almería that has killed at least 11 people, with 19 to 23 others still reported missing. (Pablo Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images)
Spain has vast areas of unused land with most of the population living in cities. “Some unused areas have not been cleaned up,” Lacalle told News Media. “Because they have uncleared scrub land, there is a higher likelihood of a disastrous fire.” That uncleared scrub that gets dried out by an extreme heat wave effectively creates a tinderbox that ignites quickly, even with a partially smoked cigarette.
The number of people exposed to wildfires has grown by an average of 382,700 per year during the period from 2002 to 2021, an increase of 40%, according to a study by the University of East Anglia in England. The study says, “This surge in human exposure was driven mainly by population growth and migration into fire-prone landscapes.” Over the same period, the amount of land burned decreased by 26%, according to the UEA study.
Separately, the extreme heat across France over the last month has caused a high death rate. The Guardian reported that some 2,000 people died at the end of June. The heat wave is forecast to continue through August.
France is the epicenter of the excessive heat, which has resulted in many outdoor events being canceled, especially in the south of the country. “Europe is being hit by a unique situation,” Shawn Hackett, president of Hackett Financial Advisors, told FOX News Digital. “The extreme heat and dryness are mainly being driven by the warm surface in the Mediterranean Sea and the cold-water Atlantic.” And that situation of warm dry weather will continue into August.