Firefighters in ‘decisive’ push to encircle Belgian wildfire
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Firefighters walking along a road as farmers helped them in spraying water from their tank to fight a wildfire at the Hautes Fagnes nature reserve near Sourbrodt, eastern Belgium, on Aug 17.
PHOTO: AFP
- Firefighters are working to encircle Belgium's largest wildfire in a century, covering 3,000ha in the High Fens nature reserve, despite difficult terrain and weather.
- Aerial water-bombing from several countries is hampered by low clouds and rain, limiting support; evacuations have occurred due to smoke affecting nearby towns.
- The fire may take several weeks to fully control, with local farmers assisting and extreme heat and drought conditions contributing to the outbreak.
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Sourbrodt, Belgium – Firefighters launched a potentially decisive push on Aug 18 to encircle Belgium’s largest wildfire in a century, despite wind and rain hampering air support operations over the High Fens nature reserve.
The blaze charring the vast expanse of boggy peatlands, pine trees and hiking trails grew over the weekend to half the size of Manhattan – 3,000ha – 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.
Aircraft grounded
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 Aug 17, Belgium’s interior minister Bernard Quintin cautioned, however, it could take “weeks” of soaking and dousing to prevent the fire from reigniting – even ones 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 Aug 17 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 Aug 18.
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 then.
After the flood, the fire
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 the night of Aug 17 – 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 37 deg C 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.
Linda Bastin, a cafe owner in Sourbrodt who briefly evacuated on Aug 15 as the air thickened with smoke, said she felt grateful to the emergency crews – but also to everyone who had mobilised since Aug 14.
“Hat’s off to them,” she told AFP. “The farmers, the young people – everyone is hard at work, everyone is giving it all they have.” AFP