The wildfire in Belgium’s High Fens nature reserve was no longer advancing towards the German border early on Monday, as light rain, calm winds and high humidity helped firefighting efforts.<\/p>\n
“That’s good for us,” a fire brigade spokesman at the command centre in Kalterherberg, part of the German town of Monschau, said.<\/p>\n
The blaze, which has burned around 3,000 hectares, is the largest wildfire in Belgium’s history.<\/p>\n
The fire had previously moved to within about 300 metres of the German border, raising fears that stronger and shifting winds could push the flames towards Germany.<\/p>\n
Around 30 residents from 17 homes in parts of Monschau were evacuated late on Sunday as a precaution.<\/p>\n
Firefighters hoped to save the homes. “Between the fire and the houses are meadows that we have completely soaked with water over the past few hours,” a spokesman said.<\/p>\n
German crews joined the firefighting effort after Belgium requested assistance on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Water tankers continued moving through Kalterherberg overnight, while crews refilled large tanks used by fire engines tackling the flames directly.<\/p>\n
Emergency accommodation was set up at a nearby school.<\/p>\n
Firefighters in eastern Belgium continued to face difficult conditions. Belgian Interior Minister Bernard Quintin said relatively strong and constantly shifting winds were making efforts particularly challenging.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The wildfire in Belgium’s High Fens nature reserve was no longer advancing towards the German border early on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,17624,14576,17820,17819],"class_list":["post-32999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-belgium","tag-german-border","tag-monschau","tag-refueling-station","tag-water-supply"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/117109095414019531","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32999","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=32999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}