infernal

On the night of July 7 to 8, a 22-year-old volunteer firefighter died when a rock fell while trying to put out a forest fire in the commune of Planay, in the Tour du Merle massif. “Everything must burn”, said Ignacio Villaverdeinactive forest firefighter. And he is right, however, until very recently that point in the French Alps did not appear on fire danger maps. It is true that France is not yet experiencing its worst year of fires, but the flames have already devastated almost three times as much as in 2025 at this time of the year and we are at the beginning of July. With another heat wave knocking on the doors. What is happening? To put things in context, the modern record for fires in France occurred in 2022. It was about 66,000 hectares. Now the counter is at about 14,500 hectares. However, it wouldn’t be fair to compare a full season with a nascent one. Above all, because this year France (and thanks to the three heat waves that are almost in a chain) has started to burn much earlier than normal. As explained the Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, That they are not in record global numbers does not mean that there are precedents for what they are experiencing. France is learning what heat is. We already know that on July 7, the 41.5 °C in Dordogne and Aude; that on the 8th, 67 departments were on orange alert and that Météo-France placed 47 at high fire risk. The French also know this (and better than anyone). What they don’t know and are starting to learn is that “a few days of heat wave” is not the same as a hot summer. In the second case, things change and what was not dangerous before becomes a bomb box. What was foliage last year is fuel today. And in fact, it affects us all.. Because, although it is easy to draw a parallel between what is happening here and what is happening in France, the truth is that the fires are already affecting us: the closure of the A9 hitchhiker, the evacuated campsites in Catalonia and Castellón and until the Tour de France (which banned the public in its third stage) They are clear signs of a problem that is affecting us in real time. The future that knocks at the door. Unexpectedly, France has become the great laboratory of how climate change can make life impossible for Europe with hardly any effort and in a very short time. It’s not just the blinds, chalk or yogurt: France is exposed to a good number of problems for which it is not prepared. The heat, they say, will last until the middle of the month, with a possible peak around the 14th of this month. So everything points to a long season. And the problems in France have only just begun. Image | Guillaume Jauseau In Xataka | “There they also reach 40 degrees and the trains are not cancelled”: Germany and France need to imitate Spain to survive the heat