ARBONNE FORT: France on Monday battled to contain a fire that scorched almost 1,000 hectares in a forest south of Paris on Monday, with aircraft in the skies and firefighters on the ground trying to douse the flames.
The hre erupted on Sunday in the sprawling Fontainebleau forest, about 60 kilometres (40 miles) southeast of the capital, a former royal hunting preserve that today is dotted with quiet villages.
As the region sweltered through its latest heatwave, the wildfire rare in the north of the country quickly spread across the Unesco biosphere reserve, disrupting rail and road traffic during a busy holiday travel weekend.
By Monday afternoon it had raced across almost 1,000 hectares an area larger than Gibraltar forcing some residents from their homes in the normally quiet, bucolic forest. The air was almost unbreathable in the forest on Monday morning, as fire trucks drove in one afterthe other seeking to bring the blaze under control.
Wisps of smoke rose above the scorched vegetation and a warm wind carried ash near the village of Arbonne-la-Foret.
Clement Boher, a 37-year-old resident, said he and his family had been on alert since he saw plumes of smoke rise about the forest on Sunday night.
‘Like everyone else, we’re on standby, vehicles ready and a backpack packed.
All we can do is wait,’ he said.
Farmers help President Emmanuel Macron said on X that all available resources had been deployed to fight what he described as ‘an exceptionally large wildfire’. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said authorities were investigating if the fire was started intentionally.
‘There were about 10 fire ignition points within a perimeter of 1,000 metres, which suggests that it could have been deliberately set,’ he said. -AFP