France on Monday battled two fires that scorched over 1,300 hectares in a forest south of Paris on Monday, as police arrested two people suspected of arson. The fire erupted Sunday in the sprawling Fontainebleau forest, a former royal hunting estate that today is dotted with quiet villages, about 60km (40 miles) southeast of the capital. As the region sweltered through its latest heatwave, the wildfire – rare in the north of the country – quickly spread across the Unesco biosphere reserve,...
The wildfire that has burned through 800 hectares of the Fontainebleau Forest, southeast of Paris, "could have been intentionally set," Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said Monday during a visit to the scene. Officials say blaze in Fontainebleau forest is of ‘exceptional scale’, with 900 homes evacuated and road and rail links hitFrench firefighters are tackling a blaze of unprecedented scale sweeping through Fontainebleau forest south-east of Paris, while in southern Spain the prime minister visited the scene of a deadly wildfire and warned: “The climate emergency kills.”The fire in Fontainebleau, a one-time royal hunting preserve about 40 miles (60km) from the French capital that today is dotted with villages, began late on Sunday afternoon. The blaze, which is unusual in its proximity to Paris, raced across about 800 hectares (2,000 acres) of forest.
The wildfire is piling pressure on a region facing its third heat wave since May. A major wildfire has spread through France's Fontainebleau forest south of Paris, prompting a large emergency response, disrupting road and rail traffic, and forcing authorities to deploy firefighting aircraft. A wildfire of "exceptional scale" has broken out in a forest near Paris, as the country battles it third heatwave of the summer.
It was the first time firefighting planes had been sent up from the normally drier and hotter south of the country to tackle fires in the Paris region.
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