Firefighters tackle flare-ups in Fontainebleau forest after fires brought under control

"Three moderate flare-ups" had been identified in the Grand Parquet area, near the town of Fontainebleau, Paul-Edouard Laurain, spokesman for the Seine-et-Marne fire and rescue service (Sdis), told French press agency AFP.

Grand Parquet is the area where the second fire broke out on Monday afternoon, ravaging around 450 hectares. The main fire, which started on Sunday near the A6 motorway, spread across some 1,600 hectares over two days.

Earlier, Laurain explained that operations would now focus "mainly on damping down, meaning making sure we deal with all the smouldering parts still in the ground, or the stumps or branches that have fallen to the ground, so that we don't get any further flare-ups." Firefighters operate during a fire in the Fontainebleau Forest, in Noisy-sur-Ecole, in the Paris' Ile-de-France region on July 14, 2026.

"After that, we'll start looking at how we can reopen the roads and stand down some of the firefighters," he continued, after both fires were brought under control on Tuesday evening.

While the number of firefighters on the ground remains similar to Tuesday's figure, aerial resources have been scaled back: three Canadairs, one Dash, two water-bombing helicopters and one command helicopter are currently deployed.

The day before, there had been four Canadairs and water bombers in total. Canadair CL-415 aircrafts of the French civil security perform water scooping maneuvers by skimming across the Seine river in Chartrettes, in the Paris' Ile-de-France region on July 13, 2026, following the forest fire in Fontainebleau Forest.

Among the "good news," Mr Laurain noted, was that the Dash can now refuel at Melun, around 15 minutes away, rather than having to travel to the Vosges or Maine-et-Loire, a journey of around an hour and a half.

Because of the forest's peaty soil, firefighters will need to remain deployed for some time yet to prevent so-called zombie fires.

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"A peat fire can spread underground for several days, or even several weeks, and sometimes resurface more than a hundred metres from the original fire," Seine-et-Marne prefect Pierre Ory warned on Tuesday.

A section of the A6 remained closed on Wednesday morning.

Four people remained in police custody on Tuesday evening, including a volunteer firefighter who admitted to having "set fire to twigs with a lighter and petrol" in Arbonne-la-Forêt.

(With newswires)