Interior Minister Nuñez: Wildfire season significantly more severe – situation still tense in the Pyrénées-Orientales

Perpignan – 06.07.2026: Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez gave a worrying assessment on Monday of the current wildfire season. Since the start of the season, more than 11,000 hectares have already burned, compared with around 5,700 hectares at the same time last year. Conditions worsened again this morning, the minister said, citing strong winds, heat and dry vegetation that are complicating the work of teams on the ground.

The Pyrénées-Orientales department has been particularly affected, where several major fires have been raging since the weekend. The prefecture reports evacuations in the affected municipalities and extensive road closures to protect civilians and clear access routes for emergency services. The Tramontane – a dry wind from the northwest – is fueling the flames and causing fire fronts to advance rapidly. According to local services, several thousand hectares of the department have been affected, and some fires are still not fully under control.

Prefect Pierre Regnault de la Mothe is coordinating operations on site. Public access to wooded and scrubland areas has been closed and approach routes monitored. For safety reasons, along the route of the Tour de France in the department, spectator areas have been restricted to ensure emergency corridors. Civil Protection is continuously mobilized with water-bombing aircraft (Canadairs), Dash aircraft and helicopters; they are supported by hundreds of firefighters and gendarmes deployed from several regions.

Nuñez stressed that the national firefighting strategy has been fully activated: major prevention work, rapid deployment of ground forces, air support and interregional reinforcements. He also referred to a difficult pre-season marked by early and persistent drought – a pattern that places even greater strain on the already climatically exposed southwest. Specialists have warned for years that longer heat periods, reduced soil moisture and more frequent strong winds increase the risk of fires and shorten response windows.

Regional authorities are calling for more equipment and a permanent strengthening of staffing levels. Increased resources for water collection points, firebreaks, maintenance of forest areas and better coordination between forestry services, municipalities and civil protection are under discussion. Land-use planning and urban planning are also a focus of concern, for example through minimum distances between homes and risk areas or better-secured evacuation routes.

In the short term, the situation remains tense: Météo-France forecasts continued high temperatures and further episodes of sustained winds in some parts of the south. Command posts are maintaining evacuations and security perimeters as long as the fires have not been contained and the edges have not been cleared. Authorities are calling on residents and holidaymakers to keep access routes clear, strictly avoid any open fires and immediately report any suspicious situation.