Hundreds of residents in eastern Belgium were ordered to leave their homes on Saturday as firefighters battled the country’s largest wildfire in recent history. The blaze in the High Fens nature reserve had spread to more than 2,700 hectares by Saturday evening.
The fire has been burning since Friday in High Fens, Belgium’s largest nature reserve, in the east of the country. DR reports, citing the news agency AFP, that large parts of the reserve have been turned into a scorched landscape.
Local authorities said late Saturday that the fire covered more than 2,700 hectares, according to AFP. That is slightly larger than the Danish island of Anholt. Saturday afternoon, the reported figure was 1,600 hectares.
Belgian authorities describe the fire as the largest in the country’s recent history. The blaze began in an area of peat bogs and pine forests, terrain that was also hit by major wildfires in 1911 during a period of drought and high temperatures.
Residents of Sourbrodt and Bütgenbach, two villages near the reserve, were told Saturday afternoon to leave the area. Authorities said the order was issued for safety reasons. According to the Belgian news agency Belga, the evacuation covered 600 people.
Shelter in Malmedy
A sports hall in the neighboring municipality of Malmedy has been opened for those who had to leave their homes. Romane Bouhaben of the Belgian Red Cross told AFP that staff are providing information and covering basic needs such as food, water and a place to rest, particularly for the most vulnerable.
France 24 adds that residents of streets not covered by the evacuation order were advised to stay indoors and keep doors and windows closed because of the smoke. As reported by De Standaard, about 500 people were evacuated in Sourbrodt and around 100 in Bütgenbach, covering some 15 streets in Sourbrodt.
Per GrenzEcho, the preventive evacuation order for streets in the municipalities of Weismes and Bütgenbach was signed by the provincial governor of Liège, Hervé Jamar. The German-language daily cites shifting winds and heavy smoke as the reason, and says tourists were asked to leave the area.
Local firefighters, farmers and the Belgian army have been deployed against the fire. The EU sent three helicopters and two firefighting aircraft to Belgium on Saturday. According to DR, EU crisis commissioner Hadja Lahbib said the aid followed a request from Belgium.
Reuters notes that the aircraft were dispatched through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism. Nicolas Yernaux, spokesperson for the Service public de Wallonie, has called it one of the worst fires in Belgian history, Le Monde reports.
The Belgian fire follows another wildfire in neighboring Germany, close to the Belgian border, which was reported under control on Saturday. More than 2,000 people were evacuated there, according to DR.
