Volunteer firefighter arrested after confessing to starting Fontainebleau forest fire near Paris

PARIS - One of the people arrested on suspicion of having started the fire in a historic forest near Paris was a volunteer firefighter who confessed on July 14, French media said, citing the local prosecutor, as fire brigades continued to battle the blaze near one of France’s best-known royal palaces.

In addition to this volunteer firefighter in Fontainebleau, who admitted to “setting fire to twigs with a lighter and gasoline,” a second suspect admitted to “accidentally starting a fire by throwing away his cigarette”, prosecutor Diane Ngomsik told French media.

The two men, born in 2007, had no prior criminal record, the prosecutor was quoted as saying.

A local official, Prefect Pierre Ory, said two blazes around the Fontainebleau forest were still raging but had been “contained”, with the main blaze having scorched 1,600 hectares and another one nearby 450 hectares.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on July 13 the fire was just a few kilometres away from the Palace of Fontainebleau, which explained the deployment of considerable resources, including water-carrying planes and helicopters.

The forest around the palace, which 16th-century King Francis I turned into a symbol of French power, served as a royal hunting ground for centuries. It later became a celebrated subject for Impressionist painters.

On July 13, for the first time, Canadair aircraft skimmed the River Seine to fill their tanks, attempting to contain a blaze that turned the sky black.

Just 70km from Paris, the fire forced the closure of the A6 highway linking the capital with Lyon and the south. Smaller fires in the area also disrupted high-speed train services.

As many as 900 people were evacuated from their homes.

Nunez said the Fontainebleau blaze is contributing to what will likely be a historic year for fires in France, with 32,000 hectares burnt already this year, more than the total in 2025.

“We’ll probably have a record year,” he said. “We expected this with this major drought.”

Europe is enduring its third heatwave of the summer, with tinder-dry vegetation and high temperatures fuelling blazes from the Iberian Peninsula to France. Many scientists say climate change is making wildfires more frequent and difficult to combat.

Nunez said 59 people have been arrested across France on suspicion of starting fires across the country. Around half were adults and half minors, with some repeat offenders, he said. REUTERS