A major forest fire that broke out on Sunday afternoon in the Fontainebleau forest, some 60 kilometres southeast of Paris, had engulfed around 800 hectares by early Monday morning and continued to spread. The fire led to the partial closure of the A6 motorway, the main artery connecting northern and southern France.
Around 400 firefighters are on the scene, and around 15 homes in the village of Vaudoué have been evacuated, the fire service for the Seine-et-Marne department said. Incident commander Olivier Compta said that without air support, evacuations would have had to include other villages.
Two firefighting aircraft, two helicopters, and a reconnaissance plane are involved in the suppression efforts, although aircraft operations had to be suspended as night fell. Eric Brocardi from the French National Federation of Firefighters said that firefighting aircraft from the typically drier south of the country were deployed to the Paris region for the first time.
The fire broke out just before the national holiday on 14 July and during the first major weekend of the summer holidays, causing significant traffic disruptions. In addition to the motorway, rail services were affected: transport operator SNCF announced that delays for trains departing from Paris's Gare de Lyon reached up to six hours.
The Paris region, like much of France, is experiencing its third heatwave since May, further increasing the risk of forest fires. Due to the heat, authorities have temporarily halted operations at three nuclear power plants.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, who is visiting Fontainebleau on Monday, said that forest fires in France have already engulfed 17,000 hectares this year. When including fires not yet entered into official statistics, the burnt area will reach around 25,000 hectares, double that of the same period last year.
