Wallonia’s fire-risk maps show where homes and forests face the greatest exposure

Updated 23 August 2026 — Wallonia. The Walloon authorities are directing residents to public maps showing the probability of fire in wooded areas and household exposure near those zones, while access restrictions remain in force around the Hautes Fagnes wildfire. The regional Geoportal classifies forested land at four probability levels and supports an indicator covering homes situated within 200 metres of areas rated above medium-high risk.

The map is a long-term exposure tool, not a live warning system. The Service public de Wallonie says the layer was produced in 2024 by the University of Liège’s LEMA research unit for the Walloon Air and Climate Agency, using a Belgian fire-probability model developed by Ghent University in 2020. Residents can search the interactive WalOnMap portal, but current restrictions and emergency instructions must be checked separately with regional and municipal authorities.

The distinction matters after the fire that began in the Hautes Fagnes on 14 August. On 19 August, the Belgian Defence Ministry reported that nearly 3,000 hectares had been affected and that crews were completing containment work. Wallonia’s environmental administration said on 23 August that access prohibitions still covered affected forests and nature reserves because underground hotspots, weakened trees, smoke and old munitions continued to present hazards.

Exposure extends beyond the Hautes Fagnes. The regional climate-adaptation assessment identifies the Dyle and Amblève valleys, the upper Meuse including Viroinval, Mons-Borinage, the Gaume natural park, the Hautes Fagnes and forest edges generally as priority areas. The same assessment warns that its fire map does not incorporate future climate change, so it cannot show how exposure develops as heat and drought intensify.

Conditions remain strained across Wallonia. The regional drought unit reported on 21 August that recent rain had brought only temporary relief, with river flows still very low and drought remaining extreme south of the Sambre-and-Meuse line. It said fire risk remained elevated in open and forested environments.

Residents near mapped zones should treat the tool as a prompt to prepare, not as evidence that a fire is imminent. Wallonia says almost nine in ten natural-area fires are linked to human activity and instructs anyone who sees flames or a visible ignition point to call 112 immediately. Authorities will continue monitoring underground hotspots, drinking-water resources and access restrictions around the Hautes Fagnes; the cause of that fire and the full ecological damage remain under assessment.