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\nA firefighting plane above the water in France<\/p>\n
Firefighting aircraft are battling to contain a wildfire raging in a forest south of Paris for a second day, with the blaze forcing some residents from their homes as the region baked in a latest heatwave.<\/p>\n
The fire erupted yesterday afternoon in the sprawling Fontainebleau forest about 60km southeast of the capital, a onetime royal hunting preserve that is now dotted with quiet villages, and quickly spread.<\/p>\n
The rare forest fire in the north of the country had raced across 800 hectares – an area larger than Gibraltar – by early today, disturbing rail and highway traffic on a busy holiday travel weekend.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“We’re going to weep for our forest,” he said.<\/p>\n
Authorities yesterday rushed firefighting planes to help fight the flames, the first time such aircraft have been used in the greater Paris region.<\/p>\n
\nA firefighting plane above the water in France<\/p>\n
“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 today on X.<\/p>\n
The fire forced disruptions in the A6 motorway that leads out of Paris to the southeast and today parts of the highway remained closed, according to Google Maps.<\/p>\n
But the national railway service said it had repaired cables burnt by the fire yesterday afternoon, allowing it to resume normal services for fast trains connecting the capital to the southeastern city of Lyon.<\/p>\n
Wildfire rages in Fontainebleau forest<\/p>\n
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The fire had raced across 800 hectares and was still spreading, officials said this morning, causing the partial closure of the A6 highway, the country’s main north-south artery.<\/p>\n
And with nightfall, firefighting aircraft had been forced to suspend their operations.<\/p>\n
Around 15 homes had been evacuated in the nearby village of Vaudou\u00e9, and firefighters were defending several other towns in the area, said the local Seine-et-Marne fire service.<\/p>\n
Residents anxiously gathered in the village, watching emergency vehicles race past and making calls to try to find out if their homes were still at risk.<\/p>\n
Evacuated residents, Valerie and her husband Daniel, described the moment authorities and firefighters told them to leave their home.<\/p>\n
“We could see the ash falling,” Valerie told AFP, sitting outside near the war memorial in Vaudou\u00e9, unsure where they would sleep.<\/p>\n
“We put the cats and dogs in the car… we could see the fire on both sides,” she said.<\/p>\n
![\"Firefighters](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0024afd7-614.jpg\"\/)
\nAround 15 homes had been evacuated in the nearby village of Vaudou\u00e9<\/p>\n
Third heatwave in less than three month<\/p>\n
France is weathering its third heatwave in less than three months, with fires raging in several parts of the country over the past week.<\/p>\n
It is the latest such deadly episode of extreme weather, whose increasing frequency in recent decades scientists have linked to man-made climate change.<\/p>\n
Sophie Guiot showed AFP a picture of a water-dumping plane flying over her home.<\/p>\n
“My parents in the south of the country had been worrying about fires, but it’s here that it happened,” she said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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\nThe fire erupted yesterday around 60km southeast of Paris<\/p>\n
High temperatures were expected to continue until Bastille Day – France’s national public holiday – tomorrow, according to the Meteo-France national weather service.<\/p>\n
The three heatwaves have seen temperature records broken in several countries across Europe and have caused thousands of excess deaths, according to estimates in Belgium, Britain, France and Spain.<\/p>\n