Macron vows no leniency as France investigates wildfire arsonists

A volunteer firefighter was among at least two people detained on suspicion of starting the Fontainebleau forest fire south of Paris, putting an insider at the center of a blaze that forced evacuations and drew a blunt response from Emmanuel Macron. The president said there would be no leniency for arsonists as French investigators examined whether deliberate or careless fire-setting was worsening an already dangerous summer.

The arrests came as crews fought through the night in the historic Fontainebleau forest, a vast woodland near Paris and one of France’s best-known royal palaces. Around 100 firefighters and two water bombers were deployed, and one home was destroyed as the fire spread across the wooded area. Damage estimates varied widely, with one report putting the burn at around 40 hectares and other coverage describing more than 1,900 hectares scorched; France 24 said at least 10% of the 20,000-hectare Fontainebleau domain had burned.

Prosecutors said a second suspect admitted to accidentally starting a fire after throwing away a cigarette. One of the detainees was reported to be a volunteer firefighter who admitted to the facts, a detail that has sharpened concern about how exposed emergency systems can be when the people expected to fight fires are drawn into the investigation. Laurent Nuñez has been among the officials tracking the response as investigators work through the circumstances of the blaze.

The Fontainebleau case sits inside a wider national pattern. RFI said 59 people were arrested across France over suspected deliberate or accidental arson, including two linked to the Fontainebleau fire. The arrests came during a severe early-summer heatwave across Europe that Reuters said had already left at least eight people dead, while fires in southern France continued as temperatures rose.

Macron also pledged to replant the Fontainebleau forest after the fire, a promise aimed at a landscape that is both ecologically and symbolically important. For France’s fire services, the episode has exposed the strain of defending vulnerable forests while also confronting the possibility that some blazes may be set from within the very system meant to prevent them.