A wildfire that erupted on Sunday afternoon in the Fontainebleau forest, roughly 60 kilometres southeast of Paris, had consumed more than 2,000 hectares by Tuesday morning — and was still not under control. Around 850 firefighters, supported by Canadair water-bombing aircraft, two Dash planes and three helicopters, were battling two separate blazes within the forest, a UNESCO-designated biosphere reserve and one of Europe's most visited natural spaces.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez confirmed on Monday evening that the fire remained active, with the main blaze and a second one that ignited nearby on Monday afternoon together having scorched around 1,300 hectares by that point. Reuters reports the total exceeded 2,000 hectares by Tuesday. No injuries or damaged homes have been reported.

Arson suspected after multiple ignition points found

Police arrested two people on suspicion of arson after investigators identified around ten separate ignition points within a one-kilometre radius — a pattern that raised immediate concern. One of those detained is an 18-year-old with no prior criminal record, who was reportedly found near the fire site in possession of a lighter, according to the French outlet Le Figaro. France 24 reports that police are now formally investigating whether the fires were set deliberately.

“"There were about ten spots where the fire started within a 1,000-metre radius, which suggests that it could have been set intentionally," Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told reporters during a visit to Noisy-sur-Ecole, near the fire site.”

The Fontainebleau cases are not isolated. Nunez said that 59 people have been arrested across France this year on suspicion of starting fires, roughly half of them adults and half minors, with some repeat offenders among them. The scale of deliberate fire-setting has added political urgency to what is already a severe environmental crisis.

Historic deployment in a region unaccustomed to major fires

The response drew on resources rarely seen this far north. For the first time in the greater Paris region, Canadair aircraft skimmed the River Seine to fill their water tanks before making runs over the burning forest. The fire also threatened the Palace of Fontainebleau, a UNESCO World Heritage site once favoured by Napoleon, prompting Nunez to explain the exceptional deployment of aerial assets. Around 1,000 residents were evacuated as a precaution, the busy A6 motorway connecting Paris to Lyon was closed, and rail services from Gare de Lyon — one of the capital's main long-distance hubs — were temporarily disrupted before recovering on Monday morning.

The forest itself draws around 15 million visitors each year, making it one of France's most frequented natural areas. Its sandy soil, dense fern cover and stands of flammable conifers create conditions that, under sustained heat and low humidity, allow fires to spread rapidly. The Seine-et-Marne prefect, Pierre Ory, described the blaze as "a fire of a completely exceptional nature and scale."

“"We'll probably have a record year. We expected this with this major drought," Interior Minister Nunez said, according to Reuters.”

A continent burning under its third heatwave

The Fontainebleau fire is the most dramatic but far from the only blaze now burning across Europe. Temperatures have exceeded 40 degrees Celsius across parts of France, and the country has already seen 32,000 hectares burn in 2026, more than the full-year total for 2025, according to Reuters. Simultaneous fires in southern France disrupted the Tour de France cycling race last week. In Spain, a blaze in a remote southern community killed 13 people, while wildfires also forced evacuations across north Wales and parts of England. The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service has noted that Europe is the world's fastest-warming continent, with temperatures rising roughly twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s. Many scientists say that sustained warming is making fires more frequent and harder to contain.

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