Belgium's largest wildfire on record burns 3,000 hectares in Hautes Fagnes, nearing German border

How the fire spread

A wildfire broke out at midday on Friday in Les Fagnes, inside the Hautes Fagnes-Eiffel Natural Park in eastern Belgium's Liège province. The blaze burned 80 hectares on its first day, then surged to 850 hectares by Saturday and reached nearly 3,000 hectares by Sunday morning, according to authorities in the French-speaking region of Wallonia. The fire is more than double the size of a 2011 blaze that scorched around 1,400 hectares, per European Forest Fire Information System data cited by LaVanguardia. Regional spokesperson Nicolas Yernaux said on Saturday the fire was already the largest in Belgium's recent history.

Terrain and response

The topography of Hautes Fagnes has complicated firefighting. Authorities explained that the terrain makes the operation particularly complex and prevents emergency services from attacking the fire at close range with their usual resources, according to RTBF. Yernaux said firefighters let certain parts of the terrain burn because the zone is difficult to access. Belgian Interior Minister Bernard Quintin said two fire fronts had been controlled, but the fire's perimeter exceeded one kilometre. Hundreds of firefighters were mobilised, including dozens of German personnel, along with the army and local farmers assisting the Department of Nature and Forestry of Wallonia.

Belgium activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, and the bloc deployed three helicopters and two water bomber aircraft from across Europe on Saturday. Sources differ on the aircraft origins: Observador reported two Swedish and two Dutch helicopters, while Notícias ao Minuto cited European Commissioner Hadja Lahbib as referring to two Swedish planes and two Czech and Dutch helicopters. Lahbib told AFP additional aircraft could arrive from Norway and Germany.

Evacuations and cross-border impact

No homes have been affected so far, the office of the governor of Liège said in a statement, though the fire remains close and smoke levels are significant. Around 600 residents were evacuated from villages near the fire front on Saturday and were told not to return. In Belgium, authorities ordered the evacuation of the village of Küchelscheid, about 10 minutes by car from the German border.

No homes have been affected at this stage, although the fire remains close and smoke levels are significant.

On the German side, the town of Monschau advised residents of areas near the border to leave their homes. The fire front was 1.5 kilometres from the German border and 1.8 kilometres from the nearest inhabited area, Monschau's municipal statement said. While the blaze was not expected to cross into German territory, significant smoke pollution was considered likely. Stephanie Ernoux, spokesperson for Wallonia's administration, told Reuters that cooler, more humid weather expected on Sunday could help contain the fire's advance toward Germany.

Other European wildfires

The Belgian fire comes amid Europe's fifth heat wave of the boreal summer, with scientists saying human-caused climate change has increased the probability of hot, dry conditions that allow fires to spread faster and burn longer. Across the continent, several countries battled large wildfires over the weekend.

In France, a fire in Les Landes province that burned at least 1,700 hectares since Thursday was beginning to subside as temperatures fell, local governor Gilles Clavreul said. Serbia saw 2,500 hectares consumed, according to local authorities cited by Observador. In Greece, two deaths were reported on an island near the Athenian coast on Sunday. In Croatia, one person died and 40 were injured in a fire that devastated the Omis region on the central coast, and police arrested four people on suspicion of arson in connection with a large fire in the Zadar region. A separate fire in western Germany, tens of kilometres from the Belgian blaze, was brought under control, allowing 1,800 people to return home.