Firefighters battle blaze near Fontainebleau as water bombers deploy south of Paris

French authorities deployed two water bombing aircraft on Monday to help contain a wildfire burning through the historic Fontainebleau forest south of Paris, after more than 400 firefighters spent the night working to control the blaze amid a heatwave gripping western Europe.

The fire ignited alongside a highway near Fontainebleau, a town home to one of France’s most recognized royal palaces, a structure that once functioned as a hunting lodge and autumn residence for French monarchs. By midnight, the flames had burned through more than 800 hectares of land, an area spanning roughly 1,980 acres, as hot winds pushed the fire forward and complicated containment efforts.

Located just 70 kilometers from Paris, the blaze forced authorities to close the A6 highway, a major route connecting Paris with Lyon and southern France. Smaller fires burning in the surrounding area also disrupted high speed train services running through the region.

The French fire service said on social media that firefighting efforts would continue Monday. Officials warned local residents that the Canadair aircraft assisting with the operation would need to draw water directly from the Seine River, which flows through the heart of Paris, in order to refill and continue dropping water on the fire.

European governments have grown increasingly concerned about the rising frequency of heatwaves and record breaking temperatures affecting the continent in recent years. Most scientists studying the pattern attribute the surge in wildfire activity to climate change, noting that large portions of continental Europe have become parched from prolonged dry conditions and extreme heat.

Wildfires have already burned through parts of France, Spain, Portugal and Greece this season, scorching thousands of hectares of land across the region. The death toll from a wildfire that swept through Spain’s southeastern Almeria province rose to 13 over the weekend after a 93 year old British woman died from burn related injuries.

Western Europe is currently experiencing its third extended period of extreme heat this summer. A heatwave in late June likely caused thousands of deaths across the continent, with multiple countries reporting more than 10,000 excess deaths tied to the extreme temperatures. The heat disrupted power supplies, forced school closures, and broke 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 known as EuroMOMO, said the scale of excess deaths recorded during this period of the year is unusual and notably high. Vestergaard said the elevated mortality figures are difficult to explain through any factor other than the extreme heat affecting the region.

The wildfire near Fontainebleau adds to a growing list of blazes that have tested emergency response systems across multiple European countries this summer, as firefighting agencies increasingly find themselves managing simultaneous incidents during periods of extreme heat and dry conditions. The proximity of this latest fire to Paris has drawn particular attention, given the historical significance of the Fontainebleau forest and palace complex, which attracts visitors from around the world and holds deep cultural importance in French history.

Firefighting officials across the region have repeatedly warned that the combination of prolonged drought, high temperatures and strong winds has created conditions that allow fires to spread with unusual speed, often outpacing the ability of ground crews to establish containment lines before flames reach populated areas or critical infrastructure. The closure of major transportation routes like the A6 highway illustrates the broader disruption these fires can cause well beyond the immediate area burned, affecting travel and commerce across large sections of the country.

As water bombing aircraft continue operations Monday, authorities have not provided a timeline for when they expect to fully contain the Fontainebleau fire, though officials have indicated that weather conditions in the coming days will play a significant role in determining how quickly firefighting crews can bring the blaze under control. The broader pattern of repeated heatwaves and wildfires across Western Europe this summer has intensified calls among climate scientists and policymakers for accelerated action to address the underlying conditions driving these increasingly severe and frequent events.