Cooler, wetter weather buys Belgium time as the High Fens fire remains under watch

Walloon authorities said on Sunday, 23 August, that the situation around Belgium’s High Fens wildfire continued to improve, while warning that the affected forests and nature reserves remain unsafe. Air-quality checks found no concerning concentration of carbon monoxide, according to the Walloon Public Service, although fine-particle levels rose temporarily overnight before returning to normal during the morning. The latest assessment offers relief after a fire that began near Baelen on 14 August and burned roughly 3,000 hectares, but it does not amount to an all-clear.

For residents of eastern Belgium, visitors and cross-border communities in Germany, the practical message is unchanged: stay outside the closed perimeter. Wallonia says fires may still smoulder beneath the peat, damaged trees can fall, smoke can reappear locally and old munitions may have been exposed. Forests and reserves in the Verviers, Malmedy and Elsenborn districts remain subject to restrictions, as do affected sites around Spa. Water analyses by the SWDE found no health risk in the public network, while supplies in Bütgenbach and the Spa Monopole catchments were also reported unaffected. Enhanced monitoring will continue for several weeks.

The weather has created breathing space rather than a definitive end to the emergency. The Royal Meteorological Institute’s outlook points to changeable maritime weather during the final days of August, with recurring rain or showers and daytime temperatures in central Belgium easing from about 24°C towards 20°C. That cooler, wetter interval — a temporary pause after the heat and exceptional dryness — should reduce surface-fire danger. It cannot, however, reliably extinguish heat buried in peat, where combustion can persist out of sight and return when wind and vegetation conditions align.

That distinction shaped the firefighting operation from the beginning. RTBF reported on 18 August that commanders described the blaze as contained but not yet fixed: crews had enclosed its accessible fronts, while the eastern edge remained difficult to reach. Germany reinforced the operation as winds threatened to drive fire towards coniferous woodland across the border. Aircraft were sometimes restricted by poor visibility and weather, forcing firefighters to rely more heavily on labour-intensive work from the ground. Two firefighters treated for carbon-monoxide exposure were reported in stable condition.

This was also a European operation, not simply a local deployment with an EU label attached. The European Commission said two rescEU aircraft arrived from Sweden, alongside helicopters from the Netherlands, Norway and Germany. Commissioner for Preparedness and Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib framed that assistance as evidence of a common European response capacity during an exceptionally severe wildfire season. The immediate command nevertheless remained with Belgian and Walloon emergency services, supported by the Department of Nature and Forests, federal Civil Protection, Defence, police and neighbouring countries.

The deeper question is why one of Belgium’s wettest landscapes became combustible on this scale. The Royal Meteorological Institute attributes the danger not only to exceptional drought but also to two centuries of drainage associated with forestry. Dry peat is both fuel and a carbon store: when it burns, the fire damages a slow-forming habitat and releases carbon accumulated over long periods. The incident therefore reveals a structural problem extending beyond emergency aviation — restoring water retention and improving land management may be as important as acquiring more firefighting capacity.

Federal Climate Minister Jean-Luc Crucke has adopted that prevention-oriented view. He said climate risk must move into the centre of Belgium’s security planning and announced that the National Crisis Centre would evaluate coordination, alerts and operational capacity after the fire. His department points to an additional €850,000 committed in March to FIRE4BE, a project developing national fire data, risk maps and spread modelling. By contrast, operational commanders have kept their public emphasis on containment, responder safety and the danger of premature reopening. These perspectives are complementary but impose different tests: the first asks whether Belgium is preparing for a changing climate; the second asks whether this particular ground is safe today.

Investigators have not yet established the cause. The Liège public prosecutor’s investigation depends on safe access to the site, and the final ecological damage is also unknown. Through the return to school and the end of August, attention will centre on rainfall totals, underground hotspots, air and drinking-water monitoring, and the timing of any reopening. Cooler weather has bought Belgium time. It has not removed the need for caution — or the longer reckoning over how the country protects landscapes once considered naturally resistant to major fire.