Did the Hautes Fagnes fire really ravage more than 2,000 hectares?

The fire spread through the dry, open landscape of the Hautes Fagnes, an ecologically sensitive upland area around the communes of Waimes, Malmedy, Jalhay and Baelen in the province of Liège. The federal Civil Protection service said its units at Crisnée, Ghlin and Libramont continuously carried water to the firefighters. The terrain makes that work unusually demanding: peat, heath, drainage channels and soft ground can hinder heavy vehicles, while flames may travel quickly through dry grasses under wind.

BX1’s report says Pompiers de Bruxelles—officially the Service d’incendie et d’aide médicale urgente de la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale, or SIAMU/DBDMH—prêtent main-forte, meaning they came to reinforce colleagues. The broader mobilisation is consistent with the official account of 15 brigades working at the scene, although the accessible federal notice does not list every participating brigade. The precise number of Brussels personnel, vehicles and hours deployed therefore remains unconfirmed in the sources reviewed.

That uncertainty matters because the story reveals both the strength and the occasional opacity of Belgium’s emergency system. Fire services are organised into 34 hulpverleningszones or zones de secours, alongside the separate bilingual Brussels service. Large incidents can cross those administrative boundaries, drawing personnel and equipment from several regions. For residents, the institutional map is less important than the operational rule: urgent calls anywhere in Belgium go to 112, not to a commune or gemeente office.

The plateau remains a popular day trip from Brussels, Liège, Eupen and nearby German and Dutch cities. Conditions can change faster than a general weather application suggests, so visitors should consult the Walloon environment portal at environnement.wallonie.be and look for “circulation en forêt” or “feux en milieu naturel”. French is the main administrative language on the SPW portal. Around Eupen and the German-speaking communes, local information may also appear in German; Dutch-speaking visitors can look for terms such as “rode vlag”, “toegangsverbod” and “brandgevaar”. Trailhead signs take precedence over an itinerary saved earlier.

A red flag does not necessarily close every road or path in the wider nature park. It prohibits entry to designated sensitive sectors of the state nature reserve, with barriers, notices and official maps identifying the affected routes. Visitors should not go around a barrier because a hiking platform still displays the path as open. The SPW warns that fast-moving fire can trap walkers and that enforcement officers from the Département de la Nature et des Forêts, or DNF, patrol restricted areas.

The precautions are concrete: do not light a fire or barbecue in or near woodland, do not discard cigarette ends, avoid work or activities that create sparks, and never park a hot vehicle in tall dry grass. If smoke or flames appear, move away without attempting to fight the fire, call 112 and give the most precise location available—a named trail, nearby road, marker, GPS coordinates or commune. The official 112 BE application can also help emergency centres locate callers and supports communication with the emergency services. Do not travel towards the scene to watch, photograph or offer unsolicited help; extra traffic can obstruct tankers and evacuation routes.

The Hautes Fagnes are not simply a forest. They include heathland, wet grassland and peat habitats whose ecological value depends on water levels and careful management. A Walloon post-fire conservation assessment found that restored and wetter areas sometimes acted as barriers during the 2011 blaze, while birds associated with the heath were among the affected wildlife. Recovery can begin visibly within months, but rebuilding habitat structure takes much longer.

Dry springs are a recurrent danger. In its 2025 warning, the SPW cited limited rainfall, sunshine, drying north-easterly wind and dead vegetation as conditions favouring rapid fire spread. It also said human carelessness causes the great majority of wildland fires in Wallonia. This does not establish the cause of any individual blaze, and the cause of the 2011 fire should not be inferred without a documented investigative finding.

There are two legitimate public interests to balance. Hikers and tourism operators value predictable access to one of Belgium’s most distinctive landscapes. Nature managers, firefighters and nearby communes prioritise safety and protection of habitats when vegetation becomes dangerously dry. The red-flag system is the practical compromise: restrictions are targeted and temporary, but they must be respected while active.

The next development in any high-risk period will come from the DNF and the SPW, which raise or lower restrictions as rainfall, wind and vegetation conditions change. The lasting question raised by the old fire is not whether every historic estimate can be made identical; it is whether public reporting distinguishes provisional burned-area figures from later mapped assessments. On the evidence available, “more than 2,000 hectares” should not be repeated as established fact. The defensible range for the 2011 Hautes Fagnes fire is about 1,200 to 1,385 hectares.