Hundreds evacuated as wildfires rage through nature reserve in Belgium

Hundreds evacuated as wildfires rage through nature reserve in Belgium The fire broke out as Belgium experienced another intense heatwave this week, with temperatures hitting nearly 37 C (98.6 F) in several areas on Friday - Bookmark Emergency services in eastern Belgium are battling a major wildfire that has burned through roughly 30 square kilometers (12 square miles) of the High Fens nature reserve, marking one of the country's worst blazes in recent history. Shifting winds and heavy smoke prompted Saturday evacuations for approximately 600 residents in the Liège province municipalities of Waimes and Bütgenbach, located near the border with Germany. Local authorities encouraged visitors and tourists to leave the region, while opening a nearby gymnasium to receive displaced evacuees. Liège provincial governor Hervé Jamar said Sunday that over 250 emergency responders had been deployed. The personnel includes police officers, military officers, civil protection workers, and more than 100 Belgian and German firefighters, supported by helicopters operated by the Belgian federal police and the Netherlands. René Dahmen, chief engineer at the Department of Nature and Forest, said Sunday that the fire was still expanding through terrain that was challenging for ground crews to reach. "On the eastern flank, there’s a line at least a kilometer long where the fire is slowly advancing toward a municipal forest," Dahmen said. "That’s the first priority now; we deployed resources last night, and the firefighters are ready, in case it gets too close." "The situation is extremely difficult," Dahmen added. "We need helicopter support." Although persistent smoke remained and flames continued to burn near residential areas, officials reported that no homes had been damaged as of Sunday morning. Authorities requested that the public stay away from the fire zone, warning that unnecessary traffic could block emergency vehicles and hamper firefighting operations. EU Commissioner Hadja Lahbib, responsible for crisis management, stated on X that Belgium had requested international aid by activating the European Union’s civil protection mechanism. "The High Fens are burning. Belgium is not facing it alone," Lahbib said. Sweden dispatched two water-bombing aircraft, while three additional helicopters — two from the Netherlands and one from the Czech Republic — were deployed to assist. Weeks of unseasonably hot and dry conditions preceded the fire, with the High Fens’ combination of peat bogs and heathland complicating efforts to control the flames. Belgium experienced another intense heatwave this week, with temperatures hitting nearly 37 C (98.6 F) in several areas on Friday. The current blaze has comfortably surpassed a 2011 fire that burned nearly 14 square kilometers (5.4 square miles) in the same nature reserve, which was previously Belgium’s largest recorded wildfire according to European Forest Fire Information System data. Nicolas Yernaux, a spokesperson for the Public Service of Wallonia, observed that present conditions were considerably worse. "We’re dealing with something much deeper because we have very dry soil," he said. In nearby Monschau, Germany, local authorities noted Sunday that the fire was roughly 1.5 kilometers (just under a mile) from the border. While the flames are not currently expected to cross into German territory, officials warned that smoke would drift across. Deeper within Germany, emergency workers made significant progress against a forest fire in Hürtgen that had triggered evacuations on Friday. About 2,000 people forced from the village of Gey were able to return to their homes on Saturday evening, according to German news agency dpa. Local government officials in Düren stated Sunday morning that no active flames remained and that a cleared cordon measuring roughly 3 meters (10 feet) now surrounded the area to prevent further spread. In southwestern France, firefighters battling a pine forest blaze in the Landes region saw no major flare-ups overnight, according to Landes Prefect Gilles Clavreul. The fire has burned an estimated 17 square kilometers (6.6 square miles) and forced about 650 residents to evacuate. It marks the third major wildfire in southwestern France's pine forests this summer following two in late July, coming after a massive blaze in neighboring Gironde burned roughly 420 square kilometers (162 square miles) and forced 220,000 evacuations toward the Bordeaux region and Atlantic coast. In the U.K., emergency crews supported by military personnel were tackling 14 wildfires across South Wales. Authorities warned that despite easing temperatures, drought conditions mean wildfire risks remain elevated, after blazes destroyed over a dozen homes in the West Midlands during the year's hottest day on Thursday, when temperatures reached 38.1 C (100.6 F).