Rain sweeping across eastern Belgium is offering vital relief to firefighters battling the country’s largest wildfire on record, a blaze that has threatened to push toward the German border.
Belgium’s weather agency, IRM, forecasts between 5 and 9mm of rain in the affected area, with more showers expected tomorrow.
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Temperatures in the High Fens, an eastern Belgian nature reserve that has been burning since Friday, are also expected to drop to between 19 and 20 degrees Celsius.
“This will change everything; in addition to the water associated with rainfall, there will also be an increase in humidity levels,” a fire department spokesperson told Belgian radio station RTBF.
Belgian nature reserve left scorched by wildfire
About 500 firefighters from Belgium, Germany and Luxembourg are working to contain the blaze, which has already consumed roughly 3,000 hectares across the sparsely populated landscape of moorland, peatland and forest.
Smoke rises from a charred landscape in the Hautes Fagnes nature reserve
A vast column of yellow-tinged smoke has spread across the region, leading authorities to partially evacuate two Belgian villages. About 20 people spent the night in a nearby sports hall.
Local farmers join fight
Chinook helicopters carrying water from the Netherlands have taken a leading role in the firefighting operation.
Farmers from the surrounding area have also joined the effort, using tractors to tow water tankers filled from a nearby lake.
Belgium has experienced a spell of intense heat and drought in recent days
Authorities said conditions remained “challenging”, although Interior Minister Bernard Quintin reported that two fire fronts moving toward the localities of Jalhay and Monschau were “under control”.
The cause of the fire, which began in an area devastated by major fires in 1911 during another period of heatwaves and drought, remains unknown. It is Belgium’s largest wildfire since that time.
Smoke has spread into the neighbouring Belgian province of Namur and as far as eastern France, where officials in the Moselle department issued an air-pollution alert.
Changing winds have made the operation more difficult, but the Liege governor’s office said that “the defensive line protecting evacuated areas is holding”.
“No homes have been affected at this stage, although the fire remains close and smoke levels are significant,” it added.
Across Europe, repeated heatwaves have deepened drought and dried out vegetation, helping severe wildfires spread and exposing even typically wet regions such as the High Fens to heightened danger.
Authorities ordered about 600 residents of Butgenbach and Waimes to leave on Saturday and have warned them that it is not yet safe to return.
Local prosecutors are investigating how the blaze started.
The German town of Monschau yesterday urged residents living near the Belgian border to evacuate, saying the fire was not expected to cross into German territory but warning of potentially serious smoke pollution.
Read more:Two dead, hundreds evacuated from fires on island near AthensEvacuations across Europe amid warning of ‘very extreme’ wildfire conditions
After Belgium requested emergency assistance, the EU dispatched three helicopters and two water-bombing aircraft from across Europe beginning on Saturday.
Figures from the European Forest Fire Information System show that the blaze is Belgium’s largest on record, covering more than twice the area of a 2011 fire that burned nearly 1,400 hectares.
Fires near Greek capital controlled after claiming two lives
Two fires on the Greek island of Salamis, near Athens, have been largely brought under control after killing two people and forcing nearly 600 residents to evacuate, the fire service said this morning.
“The situation is better, there is no active front,” a fire department spokesman said, adding that two helicopters and more than 200 firefighters were still deployed in the area.
The fires erupted yesterday near crowded beaches in the southern and eastern parts of the island, which lies just west of Athens and attracts large numbers of day visitors. Evacuations were conducted by boat.
Although the civil protection agency issued evacuation orders quickly, the fire department said powerful winds allowed the flames to spread within seven minutes, trapping an elderly couple near their home.
Three people were still being treated in hospital for burns.
Greece largely avoided the extreme temperatures affecting much of Europe during the heatwave, but strong winds have helped drive several major wildfires there since late July.
The fire department said 36 blazes had started across the country during the previous 24 hours.
Five firefighters have died so far, including a Danish pilot killed earlier this month in a mid-air collision involving two helicopters that were fighting a fire near Athens.
