Wildfire south of Paris scorches Fontainebleau forest, forces evacuations

Firefighters battled a fast-moving blaze through the Fontainebleau forest south of Paris, where flames scorched about 800 hectares and forced evacuations in nearby villages. The forest is a former royal hunting preserve now ringed by quiet communities and threaded by major transport routes just 60 kilometers southeast of the capital.

Around 15 homes were evacuated in Vaudoue as crews tried to shield other towns in the area from the advancing fire. Roughly 400 firefighters were deployed, backed by two firefighting helicopters and an observation aircraft, while French officials sent two firefighting planes to the scene to help contain a “very virulent” blaze of exceptional scale. As night fell, the aircraft had to suspend operations and the fight shifted back to crews on the ground.

The fire disrupted travel on one of France’s busiest corridors. A partial closure of the A6 motorway slowed traffic on the country’s main north-south artery, and rail service toward southeastern France was also affected. SNCF said train delays reached up to six hours around Paris’s Gare de Lyon, compounding the strain on a weekend that marked the start of major summer holiday departures and came just before the July 14 national holiday.

The local fire official overseeing the response said the aircraft were critical, adding that without them other villages would already have been evacuated. Eric Brocardi of France’s national federation of firemen said it was the first time firefighting planes had been sent from the hotter and drier south of the country to battle a fire in the Paris region.