France is grappling with wildfires after the arrest of 400 people suspected of starting them—most of whom have been charged with arson.

The fire that ignited on July 22 in Saumos, a village in the pine forests northwest of Bordeaux, grew within days into the summer’s largest blaze in France. Before it was stabilized, it had swept across 42,000 hectares (about 104,000 acres), destroyed some 240 homes, and forced the preventive evacuation of roughly 220,000 people from 23 towns at the height of the tourist season, according to the Gironde prefecture.

More than 230 firefighters were injured while battling the flames, and two others were killed a day earlier at nearby Mérignac. Nationwide, fires have charred 120,000 hectares (approximately 297,000 acres) since the beginning of summer, according to French authorities; nine out of 10 fire starts in France are of human origin, lightning being the only natural cause, according to statistics compiled by French state agency Forest Observatory for the 2010–2024 period.

As the flames advanced, so did the handcuffs. According to the Interior Ministry’s latest tally, 474 suspects, including at least 175 minors, have been arrested since the start of the season, largely over allegedly setting fires deliberately.

However, despite nine out of ten of the wildfires are the result of arson, the drive by media insists climate change is the main culprit.

Firefighters across Europe struggled against multiple fires Friday as a new wave of record-breaking heat baked a swath of the continent, their task further complicated by exceptionally parched landscapes.

The historic temperatures are linked to human-caused climate change, and are hitting countries more designed for long cold seasons and ill-equipped for this sort of heat, with limited air conditioning. …

… It’s one of several fires scorching forests around France this week, including in normally cooler and wetter regions in the north and Brittany. A historic fire devoured forests near Bordeaux last month and pushed a quarter of a million people from their homes.

What would deter future arsonists, The ET says, are tougher legal consequences handed down by the nation’s legal system. Although the law provides for severe maximum penalties, early court decisions have largely resulted in minimal disciplinary actions such as suspended sentences or electronic monitoring. Legal observers note that the real disconnect is between the statute’s toughness and the lighter sentences judges are actually imposing.

“The problem here is not the severity of the penalties provided by the code, which are quite high enough. The real problem lies in the decisions the judges will make,” Bertrand Saint-Germain, an adviser affiliated with the France-based Observatory of Judicial Decisions, told The Epoch Times.

Saint-Germain traces the gap to the “new social defense,” a rehabilitation-first doctrine theorized in the 1950s by French jurist Marc Ancel that he says has shaped sentencing law and judicial training for 70 years, steering judges away from incarceration.

Sentences under one year are rarely served behind bars, he noted, and terms under two years are typically converted into an electronic bracelet compatible with employment. Unlike in the United States, France does not stack penalties; only the heaviest applies, he said.

Channeling resources into emissions targets while initially overlooking arsonists and the fires they start is ridiculous.

What existing budgets and laws can already address is the buildup of fuel on the ground, land-use choices that keep dense, dry vegetation clear of communities, and a justice system that monitors people with documented fire-setting histories and requires treatment before they ignite more blazes.

PHOTO CREDIT: Pixabay