Some 200 hikers were stranded Thursday on the famous GR20 hiking trail in Corsica, a French tourist island in the Mediterranean Sea, due to a forest fire.
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Tourists who came to walk this very popular hiking route found themselves stuck by the closure of the GR20 between two stages in the north of the Isle of Beauty.
But they were all able to leave the shelter where they were refugees, the prefecture said at midday. All are in “good health”.
According to the firefighters’ latest assessment, 180 hectares of vegetation were destroyed by several outbreaks which remain active not far from Corte.
Emergency services are fighting on several fronts to prevent it from spreading to neighboring forests.
The GR20 refuges, which cross Corsica from north to south, have an attendance of 150,000 nights each summer.
Elsewhere in France, forests are affected by fires, such as the famous Fontainebleau forest, near Paris.
The night was “calm” on the fire front in this emblematic forest, where 2,000 hectares have been ravaged since Sunday. President Emmanuel Macron is expected there on Thursday.
In total, more than 32,000 hectares have been covered by fire since the start of the year in France, more than during the entire 2025 fire season.
In addition to France, European countries such as Portugal, Spain or Greece, and even Germany to a lesser extent, are affected by forest fires, favored by the increase in heat waves and drought under the effect of climate change.
