The Ile-de-France regional council this week launched a civil law suit over the recent wildfire which decimated more than 2,000 hectares of the Fontainebleau forest, south of Paris. A criminal investigation has been opened into the blaze, which the national forestry office says caused significant environmental damage.
The head of the Île-de-France region, Valérie Pécresse, announced her intention to file a civil action lawsuit over the 12 July fires in the Fontainebleau forest.
The action comes on the back of a judicial investigation opened by the Fontainebleau public prosecutor’s office.
"The aim is to ensure full compensation for the environmental damage by those whose liability is established by the courts," her office told French news agency AFP, confirming a report in Le Parisien newspaper earlier this week.
According to the public prosecutor in Fontainebleau, repair work to a crash barrier on the A6 motorway and a spark from a thermal cutting disc are believed to have set fire to vegetation and then subsequently to the forest, adjacent to the motorway.
Two workers have been charged with "unintentional destruction by fire... due to a breach of safety or duty of care". They have been released on bail subject to judicial supervision.
The manager of the company they are employed by has been placed under the status of an assisted witness.
Two 18-year-old men, one of whom is a volunteer firefighter, suspected of having deliberately started fires at two other locations – Arbonne-la-Forêt and Fontainebleau – have also been charged and remanded in custody.
Smouldering danger
Fontainebleau forest, around 60 kilometres southeast of Paris, is a sprawling former royal hunting ground which draws hikers, nature lovers and climbers, who come to tackle its famous boulders.
Covering some 25,000 hectares and visited by more than 15 million people every year, it has been designated a biosphere reserve by Unesco.
But its popularity, plus sandy soil and vegetation including ferns and highly flammable conifers, makes it vulnerable to fire.
The fire which started on 12 July saw the deployment of more than 800 firefighters, four Canadair water-bombing aircraft – used for the first time in the greater Paris region – as well as two Dash planes and three helicopters.
Around 1,000 local residents were evacuated from their homes and the A6 motorway from Paris to the southeast of France was closed temporarily.
Since the fire was brought under control at the end of July, France’s National Forestry Office (ONF) has been assessing the damage and clearing remaining trees as a safety precaution.
Even if the worst is over, only heavy rain can fully extinguish this "monster" blaze, according to Claire Nowak, head of the ONF's local unit.
She told RFI that due to the peaty nature of the forest floor, fire can smoulder beneath the surface only to reappear further away.
Thermal cameras regularly identify spots where the ground reaches 150 degrees, with temperatures rising to as high as 400 degrees at depth.
"The forest has become dangerous," Nowak continued, adding that the forest’s popular climbing sites will not be able to reopen in the near future as some sandstone boulders have split or shattered, and the root system that held them in place has been weakened.
"When the next heavy rains come, there will be a risk of gully erosion and rockfalls," she added.
The cost of replantation
Once the situation has been brought under control, it will be time to "review the experience to understand what happened", said Nowak.
This phase is expected to last several months, while the question of replanting will be a matter for several years in the future.
But reforestation efforts are set to be costly: each hectare of forest to be restored costs between €5,000 and €10,000, according to the Ministry for Ecological Transition.
Minister Monique Barbut reiterated in July that the government would increase the funding allocated to the National Forestry Office by €20 million in 2026.
According to France's Interior Ministry, more than 120, 000 hectares across the country have been destroyed by wildfires since the beginning of the summer.
(with AFP)
