Fire broke out on Friday 14 August in the High Fens area in Belgium, and the residents of two villages were ordered to evacuate because the fire engulfed a third of this nature reserve located on the border of Belgium and Germany.
Airplanes and helicopters sent from all over Europe help the firefighters who tirelessly put out the fire in this national park.
It is another in a series of large wildfires that have swept through Europe this weekend, including a blaze in southwestern France that saw hundreds of residents evacuated.
Local officials in Belgium said the fire was out of control as of Saturday afternoon. Nicolas Jerno, a spokesman for regional authorities in Belgium's Wallonia region, said the fire was "the biggest in recent history" of the country. "There is a risk that the fire will reach the houses, but we are using all available resources to protect them," Jerno said, as reported by the BBC.
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The Belgian authorities said that the terrain for extinguishing is extremely demanding as it consists of wetlands, heaths and forests.
Gregory Mellot, who is working on extinguishing the fire, told the Belgian public service that they managed to calm the fire coming from the plain, in order to prevent it from spreading to the forest area. "The flames are closing in on us, the wind direction has changed twice, once in our favor, once against us," says Melott.
The BBC reports that Belgium has activated its civil protection mechanism Of the European Union, which led to aid being sent from other countries.
European Commissioner Hadja Lahbib announced that two Swedish planes, as well as helicopters from Sweden, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands are on their way.
Forest fires are present throughout Europe, in Croatia, Spain, France, Belgium and Serbia. The European Climate Monitoring Service has confirmed that Europe experienced the hottest summer ever recorded.
Source: BBC
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