With 7,000 hectares already burned and 5,900 fire outbreaks recorded since the start of the year, mostly since June, the wildfire season in France has been both early and intense. A severe drought has also contributed to a high-risk summer.

On Tuesday, July 8, residents of Marseille, France's second-largest city, were instructed to stay indoors after a fire that began late in the morning in the neighboring town of Les Pennes-Mirabeau reached the city. The city's airport, in nearby Marignane, was forced to close its runways for safety reasons.

The previous day, two districts in the southern city of Narbonne were ordered to shelter indoors, and the A9 motorway leading to Spain was closed. The fire, which burned 2,000 hectares and was still not under control by Tuesday evening, was the third in the area in 10 days. Over the July 5 and 6 weekend, 430 hectares were destroyed around the nearby village of Douzens, and at the end of June, a comparable area of scrubland disappeared after the spread of a fire caused by an improperly extinguished barbecue.

Throughout the South, firefighters have identified the same risk factors, which they have called the "three-thirties": winds over 30 km/h, temperatures above 30°C and humidity below 30%. The affected vegetation is dense, owing to a particularly rainy end of winter that allowed for substantial growth of foliage, which then dried out during a hot, dry June. "Such a state of vegetation drought at the beginning of July is highly unusual, similar to historic years like 2017," said Météo-France, the national weather service.

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