Belgium’s Record High Fens Wildfire Burns 3,000 Hectares as Evacuations Continue
About 500 firefighters from Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg are battling the blaze, which has burned 3,000 hectares and may take months to extinguish.
- Rain over eastern Belgium on Monday brought relief to firefighters battling the country's biggest wildfire on record in the High Fens nature reserve, which has burned 3,000 hectares since Friday.
- High temperatures reaching 37 degrees Celsius sparked the fire on Friday, and because it penetrated metres-deep peat bogs, officials warned it could take months to fully extinguish.
- Some 500 firefighters from Belgium, Germany, and Luxembourg, alongside soldiers and farmers, battle the blaze with European Union emergency reserve aircraft; Nicolas Yernaux, a spokesperson for the administration of the Wallonia region, said "We can't say that the fire is contained. It flares up all the time."
- Across Europe, fires have killed more than 20 people and burned 576,000 hectares this year, an area twice the size of Luxembourg, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System.
- Extreme fire risk has become a regular feature of European summers as climate change intensifies drought, while experts attribute about 90% of wildfires to human activities and rural abandonment that leaves flammable vegetation to build up.
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King Philippe visited the crisis center near Liège on Monday. More than 3000 hectares have already destroyed the flames in the High Venn. Even the rain has not stopped the fires so far.
The flames that have been washing since Friday in the natural park of Altos Fagnes have forced preventive evacuations near the German border and have already devastated thousands of hectares.
The violent fire that ravaged a forested area of Belgium since 14 August 2026 consumed 3,000 hectares, on 17 August 2026. The fire is not fixed, but the weather is favorable.
The fire in the Belgian nature reserve of the High Fens is not yet under control. Some areas are inaccessible to emergency services, making extinguishing the fire difficult. Although weather conditions in the Ardennes are better today due to rain, the peat continues to smolder. The fire in the nature reserve has been raging since Friday and grew enormously in size this weekend. "We hope to have the fire under control today, tomorrow, or the day…
The fire ravaged 3000 hectares of a wooded reserve.
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