Firefighters battled a massive wildfire in eastern Belgium on Sunday, which burned more than 27 square kilometers (10 square miles) within the High Fens nature reserve, marking one of the country’s worst wildfires recently.
Around 600 residents from nearby municipalities in Waimes and Bütgenbach, located in Liège province near the German border, were instructed to evacuate on Saturday as winds shifted and smoke spread across the region. Authorities also advised tourists to depart, and a local gymnasium was opened to accommodate evacuees.
Liège provincial governor Hervé Jamar stated in a Sunday release that over 250 emergency personnel were deployed. This force included more than 100 firefighters, police officers, and military staff from Belgium and Germany, supported by firefighting helicopters operated by the federal police of Belgium and those from the Netherlands.
Authorities reported that no homes had been affected as of Sunday morning, although the fire remained near residential areas and heavy smoke persisted. They urged the public to avoid the fire zone, warning that unnecessary traffic could impede emergency vehicles and complicate firefighting efforts.
Belgium activated the European Union’s civil protection mechanism to secure assistance from other nations, according to EU Commissioner Hadja Lahbib, who oversees crisis management, via X.
Lahbib commented, “The High Fens are burning. Belgium is not facing it alone.” Sweden dispatched two water-bombing aircraft, while three helicopters—two from the Netherlands and one from the Czech Republic—were also being deployed.
This fire follows weeks characterized by unusually hot and dry weather. The combination of heathland and peat bogs in the High Fens has complicated containment efforts for the flames.
The current blaze significantly exceeds a 2011 fire that burned nearly 14 square kilometers (5.4 square miles) in the same area, which was previously Belgium’s largest recorded incident, based on data from the European Forest Fire Information System.
In the neighboring German town of Monschau, local authorities warned overnight that the fire was approximately 3 kilometers (2 miles) from the border and kept firefighters on alert. Early Sunday morning, the town website recommended that people in three outlying districts near the border temporarily leave the area because officials could not rule out health risks associated with smoke.
Belgium experienced another period of intense heat this week, with temperatures reaching about 37 C (98.6 F) in parts of the country on Friday.
In France, firefighters combating a wildfire in a pine forest within the southwestern Landes region reported no major flare-ups overnight, stated Landes Prefect Gilles Clavreul. Authorities estimated the total burned area at 17 square kilometers (6.6 square miles), and about 650 people had been evacuated from their homes.
Clavreul informed reporters on Sunday that “The situation is developing rather favorably.”
This was the third major wildfire in southwestern France’s extensive pine forests this summer, following two incidents in late July. A large fire in the adjacent Gironde department burned roughly 420 square kilometers (162 square miles) and necessitated the evacuation of about 220,000 people as it moved toward the Atlantic coast and the Bordeaux area.