Firefighters in ‘decisive’ push to encircle Belgian wildfire

Firefighters were locked in a potentially decisive push on Tuesday to encircle Belgium’s largest wildfire in a century, despite rainclouds hampering air support operations over the High Fens nature reserve. The blaze charring the expanse of peatland, pine trees and hiking trails grew over the weekend to half the size of Manhattan – 3,000 hectares – with hundreds of firefighters working night and day to wrestle it under control. Much of the fire has now been contained but a hard-to-access front closest to the German border remains a concern, with gusty easterly winds bringing an added challenge.

“This day will likely be decisive if firefighters succeed in their strategy of encircling the fire,” said crisis cell spokesman Tony Hosmans. “If that happens, the fire will be completely surrounded, and we can hope to stop its advance,” he said. On-site operations have been complicated by the fens’ terrain – a patchwork of heath, peat bogs and raised wooden boardwalks where heavy vehicles risk sinking into the ground, and firefighters struggle to tackle the fire at close range.

Teams worked through the night to close the gap and fully surround the fire, coming in from the east and north under very difficult conditions. “We’re talking about one or two kilometres, and we’re on the verge of achieving it,” regional government spokesperson Nicolas Yernaux told AFP.

Visiting the site on Monday, Belgium’s interior minister Bernard Quintin cautioned however it could take “weeks” of soaking and dousing to prevent the fire from reigniting – even once brought under control.

Water-bombing aircraft from Norway, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands have deployed on site, but they have been repeatedly grounded by low clouds.

Hosmans said the rain falling intermittently on the area since Monday was helping to slow the fire’s spread by increasing humidity levels.

“But the drawback is that it brings low cloud cover, reducing the ability of aerial firefighting crews to operate,” he explained. It was unclear given weather conditions how much the aircraft would achieve on Tuesday.

Europe has been swept by weeks of devastating wildfires fuelled by dry conditions and a historically hot summer, with France, Greece, Portugal and Spain also battling major fires. The High Fens blaze broke out in an area that was ravaged by massive fires in 1911, during a similar period of heatwaves. It is the country’s largest wildfire since.

Residents in the German border town of Monschau remain under evacuation orders due to the thick smoke blanketing the area, as do some from two Belgian villages. Those based in the hamlet of Sourbrodt were given the green light to return home on Monday night -- among them Monika Schieren, a 63-year-old tourist from a German town about an hour from the High Fens.

“We had to leave the house immediately – ‘evacuation now’ – and we couldn’t take anything with us,” she told AFP after driving back over the border to collect some of her belongings. The wildfire comes five years afer Schieren was forced to leave her home in Germany -- that time because floods were sweeping the area. “We’ve already been through a flood once, and now our vacation is gone!” she lamented.

Like much of Europe, Belgium has experienced a new spell of intense heat and drought in recent days. Temperatures reached as high as 37C in some parts of the country last week, creating conditions conducive to wildfire outbreaks. Local farmers have poured in to help fight the High Fens fire, working in shifts through the night to pull tankers of water from a nearby lake.