France deploys water bombers against wildfire near Paris

PARIS: French authorities deployed two water-bombing aircraft on Monday as firefighters continued efforts to contain a wildfire in the Fontainebleau forest south of Paris, where more than 400 personnel had worked overnight.

The fire began near a motorway by Fontainebleau, the town known for one of France’s most prominent royal palaces that once served as a hunting lodge and seasonal residence for earlier monarchs. By around midnight, the blaze had burned more than 800 hectares, or 1,980 acres, with hot winds helping to spread the flames.

The fire, about 70 kilometres from Paris, led to the closure of the A6 motorway connecting the capital with Lyon and southern France. Smaller fires in the surrounding area also disrupted high-speed rail services.

In an update posted on X, the French fire service said the operation was ongoing.

"The fight continues today."

Authorities also warned residents that the Canadair aircraft would need to collect water from the River Seine, which runs through central Paris.

Heatwave conditions across western Europe

The wildfire broke out as western Europe remained in the grip of another heatwave. European countries have been facing concern over more frequent periods of extreme heat and record temperatures. Many scientists say climate change is driving the fires as large areas across continental Europe have been left dry.

Wildfires have already affected parts of France, Spain, Portugal and Greece, burning thousands of hectares. In Spain, the death toll from a fire in the southeastern province of Almeria rose to 13 over the weekend after a 93-year-old British woman died from burns.

Western Europe is experiencing its third extended spell of very high temperatures this summer. A late-June heatwave likely caused thousands of deaths, with countries recording more than 10,000 excess deaths. The period also brought disruptions to electricity supplies, school closures and broken temperature records in France, Spain and Britain.

Lasse Vestergaard, chief physician at Denmark’s Statens Serum Institut, which hosts the Europe-wide mortality surveillance system EuroMOMO, said the rise in deaths was unusual for this point in the year.

To have this kind of excess at this time of year is unusual. It's really high.

Vestergaard told Reuters that the mortality pattern was difficult to explain without reference to the extreme temperatures.

It is difficult to explain this high excess mortality by anything but the extreme ​heat.