Interior Minister Nuñez: Wildfire season significantly harsher – situation in the Pyrénées-Orientales remains tense

Perpignan – 06.07.2026: France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez gave a serious interim assessment of the ongoing wildfire season on Monday. Since the start of the season more than 11,000 hectares of land have already burned, compared with around 5,700 hectares at the same time last year. Conditions had deteriorated again in the morning, the minister said, pointing to strong winds, heat and dried-out vegetation that make the work of the emergency services more difficult.

Particularly affected is the Département Pyrénées-Orientales, where several large fires have been raging since the weekend. The prefecture reports evacuations in affected communities and widespread closures to protect civilians and keep access routes clear for operations. The Tramontane – a dry northwest wind – fans the flames and lets fire fronts advance quickly. According to local authorities, several thousand hectares in the département have been affected, and some fire sites are still not fully secured.

Prefect Pierre Regnault de la Mothe is coordinating measures on site. Public access to forest and scrub areas has been closed, and access roads are being controlled. For safety reasons, sections for spectators along the route of the Tour de France in the Département have been restricted to guarantee rescue corridors. The Sécurité civile is in continuous operation with Canadair water-bombers, Dash aircraft and helicopters; they are supported by hundreds of firefighters and gendarmes brought in from several regions.

Nuñez emphasized that the national strategy for firefighting has been fully activated: strong prevention work, rapid ground forces, air support and interregional reinforcements. He also pointed to a difficult pre-season with early, persistent dryness – a pattern that further burdens the already climatically exposed southwest. Experts have been warning for years that longer heatwaves, lower soil moisture and more frequent strong winds increase the fire risk and shorten the windows for operations.

Political demands are coming from the regions for additional equipment and permanent staff increases. More funding is being discussed for water withdrawal points, firebreaks, forest maintenance as well as closer coordination between forest administration, municipalities and civil protection. Spatial planning and zoning are also moving into focus, for example through minimum distances between settlements and risk areas or through better-secured evacuation routes.

In the short term the situation remains tense: Météo-France expects persistently high temperatures and further strong winds in parts of the south. Operations commanders are maintaining evacuations and restricted zones until hotspots are located and perimeters cleared. Authorities are calling on residents and holidaymakers to keep access routes clear, strictly avoid open flames and report suspected cases immediately.