Rain began falling over eastern Belgium on Monday morning, providing assistance to crews fighting the largest wildfire in the country’s recorded history. The fire has burned approximately 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) in the High Fens nature reserve since it began on Friday. The Belgian weather agency, IRM, forecast between 5 and 9 millimetres of rain for the area on Monday, with additional precipitation expected on Tuesday and temperatures dropping to between 19 and 20 degrees Celsius.
The blaze, located in a sparsely populated region of hills, moorland, and woods, previously threatened to reach the border with Germany. Approximately 500 firefighters from Belgium, Germany, and Luxembourg are working to contain the fire. The European Union also deployed three helicopters and two water-bombing aircraft starting Saturday following a request for aid from the Belgian government.
Local authorities ordered the evacuation of approximately 600 people in the towns of Butgenbach and Waimes on Saturday. As of Monday, residents had not yet been cleared to return to their homes. Across the border on Sunday, the German town of Monschau advised residents to leave due to expected smoke pollution, though officials noted the fire was not anticipated to cross into German territory. Local prosecutors in Belgium have launched an investigation to determine the cause of the fire.
The scale of the disaster is historic for the region, with 3,000 hectares burned—an area more than double the size of the previous record-holding fire in 2011, which destroyed 1,400 hectares. The 500 firefighters currently deployed represent a multi-national mobilization, utilizing equipment and personnel from three different countries and the European Union’s emergency reinforcement pool. For the public, this represents a significant expenditure of regional emergency resources and a disruption to the High Fens nature reserve, a key environmental site in eastern Belgium.
The event sets a precedent for firefighting in regions like the High Fens, which are typically wet but have become vulnerable due to successive heatwaves and drought across Europe. This indicates a shift in the environmental conditions local emergency services must prepare for in the future. Moving forward, the Belgian weather agency will monitor whether the forecasted rain on Tuesday is sufficient to fully contain the blaze. Local prosecutors have not provided a timeline for their investigation into the cause, and evacuation orders remain in effect until further notice from municipal authorities.