The Gros Bessillon wildfire in France's Var department was officially declared fixed on Thursday evening after 18 days of combat, having scorched a total of 6,300 hectares and damaged 70 homes, 41 of them destroyed, after earlier stabilisation efforts were undone by a 31 July flare-up near Correns.
More than 11,200 firefighters from across France and Europe were mobilised over the course of the blaze, which Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez called the longest recorded in the Var. Some 450 personnel remain on site as the Haut-Var forest massif stays closed to the public under severe fire risk.
Prosecutors in Draguignan are seriously considering arson, with six suspicious ignitions recorded since 24 July; a 23-year-old man was placed in pre-trial detention on suspicion of setting roughly ten fires between 19 and 24 July. The forest of Fontainebleau near Paris also remains closed through 14 August following separate blazes, as France endures a record-breaking wildfire season surpassing 2022.