Firefighters managed overnight to fully surround Belgium’s largest wildfire in a century, but the situation on the ground “remains complicated” with crews battling several new flare-ups, authorities said on Wednesday.
Crisis cell spokesperson Tony Hosmans said the fire raging in the High Fens nature reserve “has been encircled” and is not moving east towards Germany, with the goal today to bring it under control “if possible with aerial support”.
“The situation remains complicated due to a number of flare-ups that have occurred in various parts of the site,” he added.
The blaze charring the expanse of peatland, pine trees and hiking trails grew over the weekend to half the size of Manhattan — 30 km²— although hundreds of firefighters working night and day have managed to stop it spreading further.
The last area to be circumscribed was a hard-to-access front closest to the German border, with ground crews working all night to close the gap, coming in from the east and north under very difficult conditions.
On-site operations have been complicated by the fens’ terrain — a patchwork of heath, peat bogs and raised wooden boardwalks.
Water-bombing aircraft from Norway, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands flew in to help, but they were unable to operate at all on Tuesday due to low clouds.
Rain falling intermittently on the area has slowed the fire’s spread by increasing humidity levels, but the weather has badly hampered aerial support since Monday.
Burning underground
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