Has the High Fens fire exposed gaps in Belgium’s emergency planning?

Liège provincial authorities reported on Tuesday, 18 August, that the High Fens wildfire

Place

Liège Province

Province bearing the direct impact and coordinating the provincial emergency response.

Why it matters

Province bearing the direct impact and coordinating the provincial emergency response.

About

Liège is the easternmost province of Wallonia, the primarily French-speaking region of Belgium.

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The improvement followed a precarious Sunday afternoon. Changing winds revived the Sourbrodt fire front, where roughly 21 vehicles were deployed to hold a line between peatland and forest, incident commander Francis Claude told Het Nieuwsblad. He warned at the time that crews might have to surrender a section of woodland if the line failed. The separate fire in Germany’s Hürtgenwald, about 12 kilometres from the Belgian border, was meanwhile brought under control by German authorities.

Federal Minister of Security and the Interior Bernard Quintin

This distinction matters in Belgium’s layered system. Fire brigades are organised in local emergency zones; governors coordinate a provincial phase when an incident exceeds the capacity or territory of one zone; and the federal interior ministry can mobilise national assets and international assistance. Nature management in the High Fens

Place

High Fens

Protected landscape in eastern Wallonia affected by the wildfire.

Why it matters

Protected landscape in eastern Wallonia affected by the wildfire.

About

The High Fens, which were declared a nature reserve in 1957, are an upland area, a plateau region in Liège Province, in the east of Belgium and adjoining parts of northwestern Germany, between the Ardennes and the Eifel highlands. The High Fens are the largest nature reserve or park in Belgium, with an area of 4,501.2 ha ; it lies within the German-Belgian natural park Hohes Venn-Eifel, in the Ardennes.

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The fire began near the Fagne des Deux-Séries in Baelen on Friday, 14 August, and affected close to 3,000 hectares, according to Belgian Defence. Six military Panther fire engines and around 40 military firefighters were eventually deployed at the Liège governor’s request. The Federal Police said more than 300 federal and local officers had participated by 17 August, including drone teams and helicopter crews dropping water.

Belgium also requested help through the EU Civil Protection

Organisation

Civil Protection

Federal emergency service involved in Belgium’s multi-level response structure.

Why it matters

Federal emergency service involved in Belgium’s multi-level response structure.

About

Civil defense or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state from human-made and natural disasters. It uses the principles of emergency management: prevention, mitigation, preparation, response, or emergency evacuation and recovery. Programs of this sort were initially discussed at least as early as the 1920s and were implemented in some countries during the 1930s as the threat of war and aerial bombardment grew.

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That reliance has produced two competing political readings. Quintin and Defence Minister Theo Francken, of the N-VA, argue that the established system mobilised help as designed. Francken rejected claims that the military had reacted slowly, saying Defence could intervene only after a civilian request and dispatched its first Panther vehicle two hours after being called. Foreign aircraft, on this reading, are not evidence of failure but the purpose of European mutual assistance.

Opposition parties have focused instead on whether Belgium entered a foreseeable emergency with too little domestic capacity. MPs from the Workers’ Party of Belgium, PVDA-PTB, through to Vlaams Belang demanded explanations in the Chamber’s Interior Committee about equipment, Civil Protection resources and the absence of Belgian water-bombing aircraft. PVDA-PTB chair Raoul Hedebouw said Belgium should not have to wait for foreign reinforcement to reach difficult terrain and also questioned regional spending on nature protection. PS parliamentary leader Pierre-Yves Dermagne warned against producing another plan that would later be left unused.

The disagreement is therefore less about whether international assistance should exist than about the level of capacity Belgium should retain before asking for it. Buying specialist aircraft would be expensive for equipment used intermittently, while helicopters and European pooling offer wider flexibility. But hotter, drier periods could make exceptional fires more frequent, strengthening the case for permanent crews, prevention, surveillance and equipment that can be deployed immediately.

The historical comparison adds caution. A High Fens fire in 2011 burned about 1,300 hectares, while research cited in contemporary reporting estimates that a cross-border fire in 1911 affected as much as 3,900 hectares. Peat and organic soil can conceal heat below the surface, allowing apparent progress to be reversed by wind or dry weather. That explains why an official declaration that the perimeter is controlled does not mean all underground hotspots have disappeared.

The immediate task is to prevent renewed flare-ups, complete the safe return of residents and assess ecological damage. Politically, Quintin and the De Wever federal coalition now face questions during the 2024-29 legislative term about Civil Protection staffing, command procedures and investment in aerial firefighting. Walloon authorities must separately examine land management, access restrictions and restoration. The decisive test will be whether those reviews produce funded measures before the next prolonged dry spell, rather than another emergency plan waiting on a shelf.