Belgium’s most severe wildfire in a century kept emergency services on edge for a fourth straight day, as firefighters, farmers and water-dropping aircraft fought to hold the flames inside the High Fens nature reserve and stop them reaching Germany.
The fire has torn through the High Fens, a sprawling landscape of boggy peatlands, pine forest and well-used hiking trails, and has expanded since Friday to cover 3,000 hectares.
Crisis cell spokesman Tony Hosmans told reporters today that the fire “had not spread further but we cannot yet say it is contained.”
“It could change according to the weather,” he warned.
Across Europe, weeks of destructive wildfires have been driven by parched ground and a historically hot summer, with France, Greece, Portugal and Spain among the countries also battling major outbreaks.
Belgian nature reserve left scorched by wildfire
Mr Hosmans said the High Fens blaze was no longer pushing towards the German border after edging closer over the weekend, a development that prompted an evacuation order in the German town of Monschau.
Rain brought a measure of relief today to the roughly 500 firefighters and emergency crews deployed to the area, though officials cautioned that the reprieve may be temporary.
Philipp Krueger, the firefighting chief in Monschau, told reporters teams were bracing for “strong winds” tomorrow, calling it a difficult “new situation.”
“We are continuing to do everything to ensure nobody finds themselves in immediate danger,” the town’s mayor Carmen Kramer told a news briefing.
Smoke rises from a charred landscape in the Hautes Fagnes nature reserve
Largest since 1911
The High Fens fire began in a region that suffered devastating blazes in 1911, during a similarly punishing stretch of heatwaves and drought.
Officials say this is Belgium’s biggest wildfire since then, and King Philippe visited the fire zone today to show support for efforts to bring it under control.
A thick plume of yellow-tinged smoke has spread across the border area, and fumes have been detected as far away as eastern France, where authorities issued an air-pollution alert.
Concerns about the smoke also led to the evacuation of two villages in Belgium, and residents there were still being told to stay away.
Fire crews have faced major obstacles on the ground in the fens, where a mix of heathland, peat bogs and raised wooden boardwalks makes access treacherous and risks heavy vehicles sinking, limiting close-range firefighting.
Belgium has experienced a spell of intense heat and drought in recent days
As a result, commanders have leaned heavily on aircraft to suppress the flames.
Additional aerial support was en route, with two helicopters from Germany and two from Norway set to join the water-dropping planes and helicopters from Sweden, the Netherlands and Belgium already operating on site.
Farmers have also joined the response, forming a steady chain of tractors hauling water tankers filled from a nearby lake.
Belgium, like much of Europe, has endured another bout of intense heat and drought in recent days.
Temperatures climbed to 37C in some areas on Friday, creating conditions ripe for wildfires to ignite and spread.
Fires near Greek capital controlled after claiming two lives
In Greece, the fire service said two blazes on the island of Salamis near Athens — which killed two people and forced the evacuation of nearly 600 — have now been largely put out.
Firefighters try to extinguish a wildfire which broke out on the island of Salamis, Greece
“The situation is better, there is no active front,” a fire department spokesman said, adding that two helicopters and over 200 firefighters remained in the area.
The fires erupted yesterday near crowded beaches in the south and east of the island, just west of Athens, which is popular with day travellers. Evacuations were carried out by boat.
Although the civil protection agency swiftly ordered evacuations, the fire department said strong winds drove the flames forward in just seven minutes, trapping an elderly couple near their home.
Three people remained hospitalised with burns.
According to the fire department, 36 fires have broken out across the country over the past 24 hours.
Five firefighters have died so far, including a Danish pilot killed earlier this month in a mid-air collision between two helicopters as they fought a fire near Athens.
