Interior Minister Bernard Quintin said on X that firefighters managed to keep the fire from spreading towards the west and toward the German town of Monschau, reports BritPanorama.
In Germany, local authorities warned Sunday that the fire was about 1.5 kilometers (just under a mile) from the border.
Some farmers from both Belgium and Germany filled up tanker trucks, pumping water from a nearby lake before heading toward the fire area to help firefighters.
European countries send firefighting aircraft
Belgium activated the European Union’s civil protection mechanism to receive assistance from other countries, EU Commissioner Hadja Lahbib, who is in charge of crisis management, said on X.
“The High Fens are burning. Belgium is not facing it alone,” Lahbib said. Sweden sent two water-bombing aircraft, while three helicopters — two from the Netherlands and one from the Czech Republic — were also being deployed.
The fire follows weeks of unusually hot and dry weather. The High Fens’ mix of heathland and peat bogs has complicated efforts to contain the flames.
Belgium was hit by another spell of intense heat this week, with temperatures reaching about 37 C (98.6 F) in parts of the country Friday.
Wildfires burn in France and the UK
In France, firefighters battling a wildfire in a pine forest in the southwestern Landes region faced no major flare-ups overnight, Landes Prefect Gilles Clavreul said. Authorities estimated the total area burned at 17 square kilometers (6.6 square miles), while about 650 people had been evacuated from their homes.
It was the third major wildfire in the vast pine forests of southwestern France this summer, following two others in late July. A massive wildfire in the neighboring Gironde department burned about 420 square kilometers (162 square miles) and forced the evacuation of about 220,000 people as it spread toward the Atlantic coast and the Bordeaux area.
