Crews encircle High Fens wildfire as fog grounds firefighting aircraft

Updated 19 August 2026, 09:30 CEST — HIGH FENS, LIÈGE PROVINCE: Firefighters encircled Belgium’s largest recorded nature fire on Wednesday morning, stopping its advance towards Germany, crisis-cell spokesperson Tony Hosmans told AFP. De Morgen reported that crews expected to meet the day’s containment objective, although fog kept firefighting aircraft on the ground.

Encirclement means crews have established a defensive line around the affected zone; it does not mean every fire has been extinguished. The Liège provincial governor’s crisis team said operations continued around the clock and warned that burning peat was still releasing gases, including carbon monoxide. Two firefighters treated for carbon-monoxide exposure were in a stable condition, according to the governor’s 18 August update.

Nearly 3,000 hectares have been affected since the fire began on 14 August, Belgian Defence said. Military firefighters deployed six Panther vehicles to deliver water from accessible roads and cool the ground below the visible surface. Defence said shifting winds, difficult terrain, smoke and low cloud had repeatedly restricted both ground visibility and aerial operations.

The fire has surpassed the roughly 1,300 hectares burned in the High Fens in 2011, previously described by VRT NWS as Belgium’s largest nature fire. The scale matters because the reserve contains peat soils that store carbon and can continue smouldering underground after open flames disappear. VRT NWS reported that the damage also threatens specialised habitats, including the remaining Belgian population of black grouse.

Residents evacuated from Sourbrodt were allowed home on 17 August, while the governor’s office said at its latest detailed briefing that conditions had not yet permitted residents of Küchelscheid and Leykaul, in Bütgenbach, to return. The provincial information line 1771 remained available, and authorities continued to prohibit drones over the operational area because they endanger low-flying emergency aircraft.

Crews will now reinforce the containment line, cool peat and monitor flare-ups. Aircraft will resume only when visibility allows safe flying, the governor’s office said. Authorities have not announced when the remaining exclusion zones will reopen, and the cause of the fire has not been established publicly.