Overview
- The fire, which started on Friday, grew rapidly over the weekend to about 3,000 hectares and has been described by authorities as the largest modern wildfire in Belgium.
- Officials ordered roughly 600 people from Waimes and Bütgenbach to evacuate and opened local shelters while no homes had been destroyed as of the latest reports.
- Belgium activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism and received helicopters and water‑bombing aircraft from several countries, including Sweden, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Germany.
- Crews say the High Fens’ peat bogs, raised boardwalks and moorland make ground access especially difficult, forcing reliance on aerial drops, army units and farmers hauling water and preventing investigation of the fire’s origin.
- Rain and cooler conditions have helped contain some fronts and allowed firefighters to try to encircle the blaze, but inaccessible hotspots, heavy smoke and the region’s dry conditions keep containment fragile.