Europe's fires reveal deadly mix of record heat, human error, arson and land mismanagement

close Video Wildfires scorch parts of Southern Europe Devastating wildfires have swept across parts of Europe since July, with Spain and France among the hardest-hit countries. (Reuters.) NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Hören Sie sich diesen Artikel an 5 Min Since the beginning of the month, France and Spain have been hit by massive wildfires. Some observed the fires looked like a scene from Armageddon. The infernos destroyed buildings and forests alike, where the epic heat wave in Europe has hit record levels in many parts of the bloc. The heat has already led to thousands of deaths. However, the fires are not just due to the record heat. Notably, last week, the famous Fontainebleau Forest near Paris was set alight, destroying 2,000 hectares (4,942 acres) of woodland. Approximately 1,000 people were evacuated, and 850 emergency firefighters were deployed — efforts to end the fire could take weeks. The latest data from France's Ministry of Agriculture says nine out of 10 wildfires are caused by people. Often it's campfires, unextinguished cigarettes or similar negligence. That was exacerbated by the extreme heat this year in France and Spain, which in many cases turned scrub grassland into a tinderbox. It's also true that both countries have regulations that prohibit clearing of certain protected lands, according to information from each country. "Policies of nature restoration and building have made it hard in some cases to clear the brush that piles up," Daniel Lacalle, chief economist at Madrid-based investment company Tressis, told Fox News Digital. 1,700 EVACUATED, FIREFIGHTER DEAD AS Turkey WILDFIRES TEAR THROUGH MAJOR CITY Firefighters ignite vegetation in a controlled burn to create a firebreak in the Fontainebleau Forest on July 15, 2026, in Fontainebleau, France. Firefighters say they have now contained the fire that began July 12, 2026, in the former royal hunting preserve. The blaze, which police believe was arson, has burned thousands of acres. (Pierre Crom/Getty Images) The causes of fires in the U.S. are quite similar to those in France. According to data from the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) and the U.S. Forest Service, 85% of fires are caused by people. However, the total wildfire burns in the U.S. from lightning-caused fires tends to burn more acreage because they often strike in remote, hard-to-reach areas. 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 Fox News Digital. THREE MAJOR US CITIES RANK AMONG WORST AIR QUALITY IN THE WORLD AS CANADIAN WILDFIRE SMOKE INVADES AMERICA 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 Fox News Digital. "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. 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. Simon Constable writes for a variety of leading publications and is a fellow at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Applied Economics, Global Health and the Study of Business Enterprise.