The fire, which officials described as “very virulent” and of “exceptional scale,” began late afternoon in the sprawling Fontainebleau forest about 60 kilometers (40 miles) south-east of the capital, a onetime royal hunting preserve that today is dotted with quiet villages.
It had raced across 800 hectares and was still spreading, officials said early Monday, causing the partial closure of the A6 highway, the country’s main north-south artery.
And with nightfall, firefighting aircraft had been forced to suspend their operations.
Around 15 homes had been evacuated in the nearby village of Vaudoue and firefighters were defending several other towns in the area, said the local Seine-et-Marne fire service.
Residents anxiously gathered in the village, watching emergency vehicles race past and making calls to try to find out if their homes were still at risk.
Evacuated residents Valerie and her husband Daniel described the moment authorities and firefighters told them to leave their home.
“We could see the ash falling,” Valerie told AFP, sitting outside near the war memorial in Vaudoue, unsure where they would sleep.
“We put the cats and dogs in the car … we could see the fire on both sides,” she said.
Without the firefighting planes, other villages would already have been evacuated, said Olivier Compta, who is overseeing the firefighting operation.
MNA