Rain brings relief to Belgium's largest wildfire as Europe battles blazes
Rain aids Belgian firefighters battling the country's largest wildfire, as Europe faces a severe fire season with blazes in Greece, Spain, and Croatia.
Rainfall on Monday morning brought some relief to firefighters in eastern Belgium, who are battling the country's largest wildfire on record. The blaze, which has been burning in the High Fens nature reserve since Friday, had threatened to spread towards the German border. However, officials said the fire was no longer advancing in that direction and was partly contained.
The weather agency IRM forecast between 5 and 9 millimetres of rain in the area on Monday, with temperatures expected to drop to around 20 degrees Celsius. This comes after a heatwave last week pushed temperatures in parts of Belgium to 37 degrees Celsius. "This will change everything; in addition to the water associated with rainfall, there will also be an increase in humidity levels," said fire department captain Olivier Guist.
The fire has burned approximately 3,000 hectares of moorland, peat, and woods, far surpassing Belgium's previous record-breaking fire in 2011, which destroyed close to 1,400 hectares. Around 500 firefighters from Belgium, Germany, and Luxembourg, along with farmers and the army, have been working to contain the blaze. The EU has deployed three helicopters and two water-bombing aircraft since Saturday.
The situation in Belgium is part of a broader crisis across Europe. Wildfires have burned 576,000 hectares on the continent this year, an area twice the size of Luxembourg, according to the European Forest Fire Information System. The severe fire season follows successive heatwaves, which have intensified drought and left vegetation tinder-dry.
Elsewhere, an elderly couple died as fires swept through the Greek island of Salamina, where 500 people were evacuated by ferry. In northeastern Spain, a blaze in Aragon destroyed 16,600 hectares, while a fire in the Croatian tourist town of Omis forced 1,000 people to evacuate.
Despite the cooler temperatures in Belgium, large swathes of western, southern, and central Europe remain at high risk of wildfires. Europe suffered its worst fire season on record last year, with over a million hectares burned, and some countries, including France, have already broken their annual records this year. The traditional June-September fire season is far from over.