George and Amal Clooney evacuated their French home near Brignoles as the Gros Bessillon wildfire spread through the Var department in southeastern France. By July 30, local residents had been permitted to return, although officials warned that another evacuation could still be ordered. Authorities have not said whether the couple’s property was damaged.
The Clooneys, who live there with their 9-year-old twins, Ella and Alexander, confirmed their departure in a letter to Brignoles Mayor Didier Brémond.
“Dear Didier, at this point we have no idea whether our beautiful home makes it through this terrible moment,” they wrote.
They said their immediate concern was for Brémond and other residents, adding that they remained committed to helping the community recover. “Whatever happens to our village, we are part of this community and we’ll be part of making it whole,” the letter said.
How large was the fire near Brignoles?
The local blaze was serious, but some early coverage attached statistics from a separate wildfire hundreds of miles away.
According to Agence France-Presse, the Gros Bessillon fire began on July 21 in a field at Pontevès. It burned approximately 2,500 hectares and forced about 400 people to leave their homes. Reuters reported that two houses in Pontevès were destroyed and around 2,300 households, mainly in Cotignac, lost electricity.
On July 22, sub-prefect Anne-Cécile Vialle said the fire was contained within a stable perimeter but was “not fixed,” meaning crews were still dealing with scattered flare-ups and the possibility of renewed spread.
Those figures differ sharply from reports of more than 220,000 evacuations and a burned area described as four times the size of Paris. Those numbers referred to the Gironde wildfire near Bordeaux in southwestern France, not the fire threatening the Clooneys’ property in Var.
By July 30, the Associated Press reported that 84,000 Gironde evacuees were returning as that separate fire held at roughly 42,000 hectares. France was dealing with multiple major fires, but they were not one enormous blaze stretching across the country.
What happened after residents returned?
The Var prefecture said people evacuated because of the Gros Bessillon fire had been allowed home by July 30. The fire remained under surveillance, and residents were told they could face another evacuation if conditions deteriorated.
Officials also began moving from emergency response to recovery. The prefecture brought together local authorities, insurers and utility providers, while psychological support was made available in Cotignac. Insurers offered people displaced from their primary residences up to three weeks of emergency accommodation.
No official assessment has been released concerning the Clooney estate. Their letter was written while the outcome was still uncertain, and later reporting did not establish whether the house sustained damage.
The celebrity connection drew international attention, but the documented local losses were broader and more immediate: destroyed homes, widespread power cuts and hundreds of residents waiting to learn when normal services would return. Wildfires are rarely impressed by property portfolios.
Why the Clooneys made France their main base
George Clooney and Amal Clooney, a human rights lawyer, married in Italy in 2014 and later established their primary residence on a farm in France. They also own homes near Lake Como in Italy, in England and in Kentucky, where George has family connections.
The couple obtained French citizenship in December. George has previously described the farm as a way to give Ella and Alexander a life removed from Hollywood’s attention and constant comparison with other famous families.
In an interview with Esquire, he said the children spent less time on tablets, ate dinner with adults and helped clear their dishes. He also said he did not want them growing up worried about paparazzi.
The twins speak English, French and Italian. George has joked that teaching them Italian was a strategic error because neither parent could always understand what they were saying. This week’s evacuation involved rather more practical concerns: fire boundaries, official instructions and whether the family home was still standing.
