Two people died on Sunday as fires swept \u200bthrough the Greek island of Salamina, while a hundred French firefighters were on \u2060their way to help combat a blaze in Aragon, Spain, which has destroyed 16,600 hectares.<\/p>\n
The blaze \u200bin the High Fens, a nature reserve in the east of Belgium, has been burning since Friday \u200band firefighters from across the country and neighbouring Germany and Luxembourg have sought to contain it, as have the army and farmers.<\/p>\n
Responders on Sunday were focused on the front line of the fire moving towards Germany, said Stephanie Ernoux, \u200bspokesperson for the administration of the Belgian region of Wallonia.<\/p>\n
Local authorities said the defensive line protecting \u200bevacuated villages was holding, although residents who had been evacuated on Saturday were told they should not yet return.<\/p>\n
Item 1 of 8 Smoke rises amid scorched trees in the area affected by wildfire near Malmedy, Belgium, August 16, 2026. REUTERS\/Yves Herman<\/p>\n
[1\/8]Smoke rises amid scorched trees in the area affected by wildfire near Malmedy, Belgium, August 16, 2026. REUTERS\/Yves Herman Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n The \u200cfire \u2060is Belgium’s biggest on record, more than double the size of a blaze in 2011 that burned close to 1,400 hectares, data from the European Forest Fire Information System showed.<\/p>\n “We would never have imagined that Belgium would be affected by a fire of this scale. Now, we have to face the \u200bfacts,” Karim Bouarfa, captain \u200bof a fire brigade \u2060that worked through Saturday night, told Reuters.<\/p>\n “I think we will have more and more of them, so it is up to us to prepare ourselves \u200bas best as possible,” he said.<\/p>\n Scientists say that human-caused climate change has \u200bincreased the \u2060likelihood of the hot and dry conditions that allow wildfires to spread faster and burn longer.<\/p>\n Germany’s Monschau on Sunday asked residents near the border with Belgium to leave, noting that the fire was not expected \u2060to reach \u200bGerman territory but significant smoke pollution was likely.<\/p>\n The EU deployed \u200bthree helicopters and two water bombing aircraft from around Europe on Saturday after Belgium requested emergency reinforcements.<\/p>\n Reporting by Kate Abnett and \u200bBart Biesemans; Additional reporting by Christoph Steitz and Graham Keeley; Editing by David Goodman and Alexander Smith<\/p>\n Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab<\/a><\/p>\n Purchase Licensing Rights<\/a> Kate Abnett covers EU climate and energy policy in Brussels, reporting on Europe\u2019s green transition and how climate change is affecting people and ecosystems across the EU. Other areas of coverage include international climate diplomacy. Before joining Reuters, Kate covered emissions and energy markets for Argus Media in London. She is part of the teams whose reporting on Europe\u2019s energy crisis won two Reuters journalist of the year awards in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fire has burned 3,000 hectares since Friday, authorities sayBelgian authorities tell evacuated residents not to returnMonschau advises border-area…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[17744,17758,9462,7,11055,226,732,17745,17746,17747,17756,15718,15711,15714,15720,15712,15726,17757,15709,15725,15707,15716,11067,15715,11072,15713,15717,15721,15719,11071,15699,736,17748,89,733,11056,17749,15700,15701,15702,17750,15704,15723,17751,15727,15708,17752,17740,17743,17742,17741,17753,11051,17754,17755],"class_list":["post-32885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-anim","tag-awlq","tag-be","tag-belgium","tag-blux","tag-bru","tag-ceeu","tag-clc","tag-clr","tag-com","tag-de","tag-destafa","tag-destcsa","tag-destg","tag-destgns","tag-destlby","tag-destocatpm","tag-destortagm","tag-destouktpm","tag-destoustpm","tag-destouswdm","tag-destpge","tag-destpsc","tag-destrast","tag-destrbn","tag-destreulb","tag-destrnp","tag-destrws","tag-destrwsa","tag-destucdptest","tag-dis","tag-emea","tag-env","tag-eu","tag-europ","tag-ezc","tag-firesv","tag-gen","tag-govact","tag-incen","tag-intag","tag-lgsps","tag-mtvid","tag-natu","tag-packageus-top-news","tag-packageworld-news","tag-pol","tag-rsbiclimate-change","tag-rulesworld-wildfires","tag-topicreuters-impact-top-stories","tag-topicworld-weather","tag-wea","tag-weu","tag-wfire","tag-wrm"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Kate](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/https:\/\/cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com\/reuters\/H24NV3AFCZCWPC463OG3JRYY7U.jpg\")
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