Fontainebleau forest wildfire burns more than 800 hectares and disrupts travel near Paris
A fast-moving wildfire in the Fontainebleau forest south-east of Paris has burned more than 800 hectares and was still spreading early on Monday. The blaze began late on Sunday afternoon in the wooded area about 60 kilometres from the capital, prompting a major emergency response. It has forced evacuations, closed part of a key motorway and disrupted high-speed rail services.
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French officials sent two firefighting planes to the Paris region on Sunday after the fire was described as very virulent and of exceptional scale. Firefighting aircraft had to stop operating at nightfall, while two helicopters and an observation aircraft continued to support the effort. About 400 firefighters were deployed to contain the blaze, according to the local fire service.
Around 15 homes were evacuated in the village of Vaudoue, and firefighters were defending several other towns in the area. The partial closure of the A6 motorway affected one of the country's main north-south routes during a busy summer travel weekend. Rail operator SNCF said trains arriving at or leaving Paris's Gare de Lyon faced delays of up to six hours on Sunday evening.
The fire is significant because it hit the Paris region during a heatwave-stricken weekend and only two days before the Bastille Day national holiday. Officials said the use of firefighting planes from the normally hotter and drier south of the country was the first time such aircraft had been sent to tackle a fire in the Paris region. The incident also underlines how wildfire risk is no longer confined to the south of France, as repeated heatwaves have affected large parts of the country since May.
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The Fontainebleau forest has long been a major wooded area south-east of Paris and is surrounded by villages that can be vulnerable when fires spread quickly. In this case, local and national emergency services worked together, with the Seine-et-Marne fire service overseeing the response on the ground. Olivier Compta, who was overseeing the operation, said that without the firefighting planes, other villages would already have been evacuated.
What remains unclear is how much further the fire may spread and when transport links will return to normal. Officials have not yet said when the blaze will be fully contained, and the scale of any longer-term damage is still unknown. The next developments to watch are whether more evacuations are needed, how quickly the A6 and rail services can reopen, and whether the weather will help or hinder firefighting efforts.
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