Firefighters are battling a wildfire that has engulfed a significant portion of Belgium's High Fens nature reserve, an event officials are calling the country's most severe blaze in recent history. The fire, which began Friday, had consumed an estimated one-third of the reserve by Saturday afternoon and posed a risk to nearby villages.
Residents of two villages were ordered to evacuate as the flames threatened to reach homes. A local gymnasium has been opened to provide temporary shelter for those displaced. Water-bombing aircraft and helicopters from across Europe have been dispatched to assist Belgian firefighters.
Authorities have faced challenges due to difficult terrain, characterized by bog-like ground, moorland, and forests, as well as shifting winds. In some areas, firefighters have allowed parts of the heathland to burn due to the inaccessibility of the region. Despite these challenges, crews have managed to prevent the fire from spreading into a nearby fir forest.
To bolster firefighting efforts, Belgium activated the European Union's civil protection mechanism. Reinforcements, including two Swedish water-bombing aircraft and helicopters from the Czech Republic and the Netherlands, are en route.
The High Fens blaze is among several wildfires currently burning across Europe. In southwestern France, a forest fire prompted the evacuation of 650 residents from their homes. This fire, which started Thursday, reignited on Saturday, requiring the deployment of over 500 firefighters.
Forest fires have also been reported in Croatia, Spain, and Serbia since Friday. These incidents follow a summer marked by extreme heat across the continent, leading to widespread land fires and scorched landscapes. The EU's climate monitoring service, Copernicus, has confirmed that western Europe experienced its hottest June-to-July period on record.