Particle.news
Download on the App Store

France Records About 2,025 Excess Deaths After June Heatwave as Early Wildfires Rage in the South

Provisional mortality data and large fires have pushed hospitals, funeral services and firefighters to sustained crisis mode while forecasters warn temperatures will rise again this weekend.

Overview

  • Santé publique France reported a provisional rise of 2,025 excess deaths for the week of June 22–28, with Île-de-France and Pays de la Loire hardest hit and deaths at home nearly doubling compared with the prior week.
  • Those figures are based on electronic death certificates that cover only about 60% of deaths nationally and roughly 25% of home deaths, so public health officials say the true toll will be revised upward as civil records are consolidated.
  • Exceptionally early and violent wildfires broke out in the south, including a blaze that burned about 900 hectares between the Aude and the Hérault and a camping-port fire at Canet-en-Roussillon that forced roughly 3,000 people to evacuate and destroyed bungalows, boats and industrial buildings.
  • The government convened an interministerial crisis cell in Marseille and kept the Orsan 3 hospital plan active while hundreds to thousands of firefighters and aerial assets such as Canadairs carried out hundreds of water drops to contain multiple fires.
  • Météo France said the June wave has formally ended by its national thermal index, but forecasters predict a new rise in temperatures from the coming weekend with more than 35°C possible in the southwest, keeping health and fire risks elevated and straining local services.