Belgian wildfire ‘encircled’ but situation still ‘complicated’

MALMEDY, Belgium

A firefighter gestures to another as smoke emanates from burnt vegetation during a wildfire at High Fens nature reserve.

Firefighters managed overnight to fully surround Belgium’s largest wildfire in a century, but the situation on the ground “remains complicated” with crews battling several new flare-ups, authorities said on Aug. 19.

Crisis cell spokesman Tony Hosmans said the fire raging in the High Fens nature reserve “has been encircled” and is not moving east towards Germany, with the goal today to bring it under control “if possible with aerial support.”

“The situation remains complicated due to a number of flare-ups that have occurred in various parts of the site,” he added.

The blaze charring the expanse of peatland, pine trees and hiking trails grew over the weekend to 3,000 hectares, although hundreds of firefighters working night and day have managed to stop it spreading further.

The last area to be circumscribed was a hard-to-access front closest to the German border, with ground crews working all night to close the gap, coming in from the east and north under very difficult conditions.

On-site operations have been complicated by the fens’ terrain, a patchwork of heath, peat bogs and raised wooden boardwalks.

Water-bombing aircraft from Norway, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands flew in to help, but they were unable to operate at all on Aug. 17 due to low clouds.

Rain falling intermittently on the area has slowed the fire’s spread by increasing humidity levels, but the weather has badly hampered aerial support.

The High Fens blaze broke out on Aug. 14 for reasons still unknown in an area that was ravaged by massive fires in 1911, during a similar period of heat waves.

It is the country’s largest wildfire since.