France Battles Massive Forest Fires Near Paris, Thousands Evacuated

Hundreds of firefighters are battling two massive blazes in the Fontainebleau forest south of Paris, which have consumed nearly 2,000 hectares (about 4,900 acres) of land and forced the evacuation of over 1,000 people, local authorities reported.

The fires, which broke out on Tuesday, have been ravaging areas of southern France, but the Fontainebleau fire is exceptionally close to the densely populated region surrounding the French capital.

According to the regional fire chief, water-dumping planes have been repeatedly deployed to fight the fires, with the aircraft scooping up water from the Seine River to douse the flames. This is the first time such aircraft have been used to fight fires in the Paris region.

Smoke blanketed the treetops and hung in the air on Tuesday as authorities sought to get the fires under control.

No deaths or injuries have been reported so far, but two people have been arrested in connection with the Fontainebleau fires, and two others have been arrested for fires elsewhere in France, according to Interior Minister Laurent Nunez.

Speaking on BFM television, Nunez said that the arrested individuals would not be named until further investigations were conducted.

The heat wave that has scorched France in recent days, the third already this year, is starting to subside, with the national weather service expecting to end its heat wave red alert warnings starting Wednesday. Thunderstorm warnings are now in place in several regions.

In a separate incident, four days after a fire ravaged a remote expat community in southern Spain, judicial authorities have identified 10 of the 13 fatalities using biological samples.

The deceased, all of whom were adults, include five British citizens, three Belgian nationals, a French woman, and a Spanish national. Most of the victims were foreign nationals.

The Los Gallardos fire affected some 70 square kilometers (27 square miles) of forest and farmland, an area larger than Manhattan, and Spain is experiencing extreme heat, which, combined with wind and little rainfall, is creating the ideal conditions for small wildfires to grow unchecked.

According to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, Europe is the world’s fastest-warming continent, with temperatures increasing twice as fast as the global average since the 1980s.