A fast-moving wildfire that has so far scorched about 800 hectares of the Fontainebleau forest southest of Paris may have been "intentionally set", French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said Monday. The fire prompted France to deploy two firefighting Canadair planes from the country's south as crews battled to contain the blaze, the first time such aircraft have been used in the greater Paris region.
The fire that swept through 800 hectares of the sprawling Fontainebleau forest southeast of Paris may have been “intentionally set”, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said Monday.
“There were about ten spots where the fire started within a 1,000-metre radius, which suggests that it could have been set intentionally,” he told reporters during a visit to Noisy-sur-Ecole (Seine-et-Marne), near the site of the fire. “We are hopeful that we will be able to contain the fire today,” the minister added. However, “it will take several days or even several weeks to fully extinguish the fire”.
Firefighting aircraft battled to contain the fire for a second day, with the blaze forcing some residents from their homes as the region baked in the year's third heatwave.
The fire erupted late afternoon Sunday in the forest located about 60 kilometres (40 miles) southeast of the capital, a onetime royal hunting preserve that today is dotted with quiet villages, and quickly spread.
The rare forest fire in the north of the country had raced across 800 hectares – an area larger than Gibraltar – by early Monday, disturbing rail and highway traffic on a busy holiday travel weekend.
"I have never seen this before" in three decades, Didier Buguinet, a deputy mayor in Le Vaudoue, said of the flames raging on the edge of the village of some 750 inhabitants.
"We're going to weep for our forest," he said.
Authorities on Sunday rushed firefighting planes to help fight the flames, the first time such aircraft have been used in the greater Paris region.
"Two Canadair planes are preparing to scoop up water from the Seine" river, officials in the Seine-et-Marne region on the city's outskirts said on Monday on X.
The fire forced disruptions in the A6 motorway that leads out of Paris to the southeast and on Monday parts of the highway remained closed, according to Google Maps.
But the national railway service said it had repaired cables burnt by the fire on Sunday afternoon, allowing it to resume normal services for fast trains connecting the capital to the southeastern city of Lyon.
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France is weathering its third heatwave in less than three months, with fires raging in several parts of the country over the past week.
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It is the latest such deadly episode of extreme weather, whose increasing frequency in recent decades scientists have linked to man-made climate change.
Sophie Guiot showed AFP a picture of a water-dumping plane flying over her home.
"My parents in the south of the country had been worrying about fires, but it's here that it happened," she said.
The country recorded more than 2,000 excess deaths during the June heatwave, and 300 during the high temperatures in late May, according to official figures.
Read moreThousands evacuated in southwestern France as wildfire burns out of control
Since the start of the year, wildfires have scorched some 25,000 hectares of land in France – an area nearly as big as Edinburgh and twice as much as during the same period last year, director general of civil security Julien Marion said on Friday.
High temperatures were expected to continue until France's national public holiday on Tuesday, according to the Meteo-France national weather service.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
