A large wildfire has spread through Belgium’s High Fens nature reserve, moving closer to the German border and prompting evacuations. The fire began on Friday and grew from 80 hectares to 850 hectares by Saturday morning, with more than 3,000 hectares already burned by Sunday. Two villages in Belgium have been evacuated as the flames approached residential areas, though no homes have been damaged. Firefighters from Germany and Luxembourg have joined Belgian forces, along with local farmers to fight the blaze. The terrain in the High Fens, which includes peat bog, moorland, and forest, has made it difficult for firefighters to control the fire. Some areas of heathland have been allowed to burn where crews cannot reach them due to the landscape.
Belgian fire brigade captain Karim Bouarfa said the situation was beyond what anyone had expected, according to The Independent. He added that the crew had worked through Saturday night to try and stop the fire from spreading further.
The High Fens reserve is now burning in a way that has left officials concerned about the situation. A chief engineer from Wallonia’s nature and forest department described the fire as extremely difficult to manage. The fire moved towards a municipal forest, increasing the risk of more widespread damage.
In neighboring Germany, residents in the town of Monschau were evacuated from two streets as the fire approached the border, according to a report from Firstpost. The region has seen unusually high temperatures and dry conditions this summer, which have contributed to the spread of wildfires across Europe, AOL reported. Scientists say climate change is making such extreme heat and drought more likely. This summer has been the hottest June and July on record for Western Europe, according to Copernicus, the EU’s climate monitoring service.
Fires burned elsewhere in Europe over the weekend. In Greece, two people died on the island of Salamina as a fire moved toward residential areas. About 500 people were evacuated from Salamina due to gale-force winds pushing the fire towards residential areas.
In Spain, firefighters are helping combat a blaze in Aragon that has destroyed more than 16,000 hectares. A separate fire in France’s Landes region has burned nearly 1,700 hectares and forced about 650 people from their homes.
The EU has sent emergency aircraft to Belgium, including helicopters and water bombers, in response to the fire. Belgian officials have said that the fire is no longer spreading toward Germany and is partly contained. Evacuated residents have not yet been allowed to return home.
Some 500 firefighters from Belgium, Germany, and Luxembourg have joined the effort to fight the blaze. The European fire season last year was the worst on record, with more than a million hectares burned across the continent. In southwestern France, residents of Le Porge booed Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu after a megafire destroyed hundreds of homes last month.
The situation in Belgium remains serious but is being addressed with international support and resources.