Does this Thursday, May 1, mark the start of the Forest fire season ? It is in any case the first time in 2025 that the firefighters were called for a fire of such magnitude in a wood.
It was around 4:20 p.m. when a fire was reported in the forest of Ermenonville, near the Chaalis barrack, in the heart of the forest massif, on the territory of Fontaine-Chaalis.
Significant means are quickly dispatched to the site. In total, sixty-five firefighters, nine “forest fire trucks” and a command post were deployed on the site.
A drone to determine the impacted surface
It will take almost five hours to circumscribe the fire, which destroyed about ten hectares of forest. “This is a first estimate, the more precise figures will be consolidated with the information provided by the drone,” says the firefighters.
At 9 p.m., the fire was officially declared controlled. “We are going to start the rattlement phase of the ten hectares affected by the fire,” said the gendarmerie. Efficients had to be mobilized to “check with the firefighters that there is no one who would have been trapped by the fire and would eventually be injured”.
“There were many walkers today in the forest,” confirms Alexis Patria, mayor of Fontaine-Chaalis. As the fire broke out in the heart of the forest, there was no risk for homes. The situation was perfectly mastered by firefighters and gendarmes. »»
Un long surveillance work began. “It will be led by firefighters and ONF agents (National Forest Office) and could last a good part of the night,” says the mayor. We have to do a peat fire problem. It can appear to be off and continue in the basement to be reborn elsewhere. »»
“I have been mayor for 24 years and fires, I have seen some,” he says. This one is one of the most important, ten hectares, it is not common, it is impressive. »»
It was the dry ferns of autumn that have ignited. “There was a bit of east wind, which worsened things,” explains the mayor. Trees, conifers, are not condemned but according to the ONF, when they take a hot blow like that, they are very weakened. »»
This Thursday evening, the origin of the fire was still to be determined.
