Belgium Deploys EU Air Support as Record Wildfire Doubles in Size
Cgtn · 2 SOURCESabout 1 hour ago2 MIN
Summary
Belgium is facing its largest modern wildfire on record as the High Fens nature reserve blaze rapidly expanded to around 3,000 hectares by Sunday, spawning thick yellowish smoke that blanketed areas near the German border. The EU deployed three helicopters and two water bomber aircraft from the Czech Republic, Sweden, and the Netherlands to assist overwhelmed firefighters, as authorities evacuated residents from multiple villages and counted on aerial support to tame the flames in the hard-to-access reserve.
Key Points
- The wildfire began Friday in the fragile peatlands and pine forests of the High Fens (Hautes Fagnes) reserve near Belgium's eastern border with Germany
- The fire grew exponentially from 80 hectares on Friday to 850 hectares Saturday morning, then surged to approximately 3,000 hectares by Sunday morning
- This surpasses Belgium's previous record of roughly 1,400 hectares burned in 2011, making it the country's largest wildfire since a 1911 blaze during similar drought conditions
- More than 250 firefighters from Belgium and Germany, supported by army personnel, farmers, and next-generation fire engines, have been mobilized to contain the blaze
- The terrain—comprising heath, peat bogs, and raised wooden boardwalks where heavy vehicles risk sinking—has made close-range firefighting operations "particularly complex"
- EU Crisis Commissioner Hadja Lahbib confirmed the deployment of aircraft from the Czech Republic, Sweden, and the Netherlands under the EU civil protection mechanism
- Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken reported that a children's summer camp and tourists were evacuated, with residents of several villages also told to leave as a precaution
- Rescue teams have been unable to access the fire's point of origin, leaving the cause unknown
- Belgium experienced its fifth heatwave of the summer this week, with scientists attributing the hot and dry conditions to human-caused climate change