Overview
- A fire that began on 14 August has burned about 3,000 hectares in the cross‑border Hohes Venn nature reserve and is reported to be one of Belgium’s largest wildfires since 1911.
- Authorities say the blaze is largely encircled but still active with recurring underground peat smoulders that can reignite and make final containment likely to take weeks or months.
- German fire crews who had been supporting Belgian teams have begun withdrawing as local forces, volunteers and limited air assets continue manual work such as removing surface peat and probing for hidden hot spots.
- Precautionary evacuations around Monschau/Kalterherberg were lifted and air‑quality checks found pollutant levels below health thresholds, though residents may still face smoke nuisance and long recovery of habitats.
- A new PIK study released on 20 August warns that warmer, drier conditions will raise European burn areas dramatically without stronger climate action and improved prevention, reinforcing calls to rewet drained peatlands to cut risk and carbon losses.