Record Belgium wildfire doubles in size

BRUSSELS

Thick smoke drifts past two lone trees at the High Fens Park. (AFP photo)

Firefighters battling Belgium’s largest modern-day wildfire were counting on crucial air support on Aug. 16 to help tame the blaze in a hard-to-access nature reserve, after it doubled in size over the previous 24 hours.

More than 250 firefighters and emergency personnel were mobilized through the night, according to an update from the regional government on Aug. 16, which warned conditions in the High Fens park near the German border “remain challenging.”

From 80 hectares burned on Aug. 14, the day the fire broke out for reasons still unknown, the area affected jumped to 850 on the morning of Aug. 15, and by early Aug. 16 had spread to 3,000 hectares, authorities said.

The blaze broke out in an area of fragile peatlands and pine forests that was ravaged by massive wildfires in 1911, during a similar period of heat waves and drought, and is the country’s largest wildfire since then.

The entire area near the German border has been blanketed by a thick plume of yellowish smoke, prompting the evacuation of residents from parts of two villages close to the fire.

No homes have been damaged so far, but the blaze remains out of control.

Several fire fronts were still active on Aug. 16, authorities said, with winds regularly changing direction and complicating efforts to contain the flames.