French officials rushed two firefighting planes to the Paris region Sunday, after a fire erupted south of the French capital, disrupting traffic during a busy summer travel weekend and piling more misery on a region sweltering through its latest heatwave. The fire, which officials described as "very virulent" and of "exceptional scale", began late afternoon in the sprawling Fontainebleau forest about 60 kilometres (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. Without the firefighting planes, other villages would already have been evacuated, said Olivier Compta, who is overseeing the firefighting operation.
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