France Faces Large Forest Fire Due to Heat Wave, Residents Evacuated

France is struggling to put out a major forest fire near Paris as a prolonged heatwave continues to hit much of the country and forced evacuations near the Fontainebleau forest.

BFM TV reported on Monday, July 13, that a fire near the Fontainebleau forest, about 70 kilometers southeast of Paris, triggered the evacuation of about 1,000 residents and tourists from the commune of Le Vaudoue as the fire moved towards residential areas.

The mayor of Le Vaudoue, Michel Calmy, described a "fire wall" that spread quickly towards the village before finally reaching the outskirts of the residential area, according to the broadcaster's report.

Meanwhile, government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon told RTL that the Fontainebleau forest fire was "an exceptional situation," saying such a large fire in northern France was unprecedented.

"This is an extraordinary situation, which requires extraordinary handling," he said, quoted by ANTARA from Anadolu.

The government deployed a Canadair air bomber and a Dash fleet to help put out the fire.

Two Canadair planes arrived at the area on Monday and began carrying out water dropping operations after collecting water from the Seine River.

The forest fire occurred as 37 departments remained under France's highest red heatwave alert, with extreme temperatures and dry conditions increasing the risk of fires across the country, according to the broadcaster.

Bregeon said around 2,000 cooling centres were opened over the weekend under the Extreme Heat ORSEC emergency plan recently introduced by the government to protect vulnerable people.

Meanwhile, French hospitals are still coping with a spike in health complaints related to heat.

The government also supported the cancellation of several Bastille Day celebrations, saying the measures were intended to avoid overloading emergency services and reduce the risk of new fires caused by fireworks.

Elsewhere, firefighters managed to bring under control a forest fire in Cap Frehel in the Cotes-d'Armor department in the northwest, although emergency teams remained on site to prevent the flames from reigniting.

Deputy Defense Minister Alice Rufo told broadcaster TF1 the government hopes to deploy the A400M military transport plane for the fire-fighting mission "in the coming weeks" after completing pilot training and other preparations.