Paris, July 13 (EFE).- French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday praised firefighters battling a suspected arson wildfire that has scorched about 800 hectares of the iconic Fontainebleau forest southeast of Paris, as authorities warned France faces an exceptionally severe wildfire season fueled by an intense heatwave.
«The Fontainebleau forest is affected by a fire of exceptional magnitude,» Macron said in a message on social media, expressing his solidarity with residents of the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region.
The French president also expressed his «deep gratitude» to the firefighters and emergency personnel «working tirelessly» to contain the blaze.
«All available resources are being mobilized» to extinguish the fire in the iconic forest, he added.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said the blaze may have been deliberately set after around 10 separate fire outbreaks were detected within a one-kilometer radius, along with two ignition points on opposite sides of the A6 motorway.
