High Fens fire prompts national wildfire plan after Belgium’s crisis response faces scrutiny

Updated 23 August 2026 — BRUSSELS. Interior Minister Bernard Quintin told an urgently convened parliamentary committee on Thursday, 20 August, that Belgium will develop a national wildfire action plan after a fire burned roughly 3,000 hectares in the High Fens. Quintin said the provincial crisis system had worked, while acknowledging that the response was not flawless, according to Het Nieuwsblad.

The fire started on Friday, 14 August, in the protected High Fens landscape in Liège province and spread through dry heath and peat. VRT NWS described it as Belgium’s largest recorded nature fire, surpassing the roughly 1,300 hectares affected there in 2011. The final environmental damage and the fire’s cause have not been established publicly.

The emergency operation brought together local fire zones, Civil Protection, Defence, police, farmers and foreign assistance. The Federal Police said more than 300 federal and local officers had participated by 17 August. Police helicopters had dropped more than 420 loads of approximately 700 litres of water by the previous evening, while drone teams mapped the fire and officers guarded evacuated areas.

The governor of Liège reported on 17 August that crews had contained the fire where the terrain was accessible, although it continued moving through areas that firefighters could not safely reach on foot. Rain and weaker winds limited that advance, the Walloon government’s situation report said.

Quintin told MPs that declaring a federal emergency phase would not have improved operations and would have complicated command on the ground, Het Nieuwsblad reported. He presented requests for foreign aircraft as evidence of European cooperation rather than Belgian failure. His promised action plan is expected to address wildfire preparation, access routes, water supplies and the division of responsibilities, although no budget or completion date has been published.

Opposition MPs disputed the minister’s positive assessment. Anders MP Arthur Orlians demanded answers about the speed of coordination and cooperation with neighbouring countries. PS parliamentary leader Pierre-Yves Dermagne warned that Belgium has a habit of producing evaluations that are not implemented, while PVDA linked the operational questions to past pressure on emergency-service resources.

The political argument now moves from the emergency response to preparedness. Parliament will watch whether Quintin’s plan produces funded measures, while investigators and nature managers still have to determine the cause, the final burned area and the long-term damage to the High Fens ecosystem.