The Belgian government will introduce a national resilience plan to strengthen the country\u2019s ability to respond to fires and other climate-related crises following its largest forest fire in more than a century. <\/p>\n
Interior Minister Bernard Quintin announced the plan on Thursday as parliament\u2019s home affairs committee met to debate this week\u2019s wildfire in the High Fens nature reserve, Euractiv<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n The\u00a0blaze\u00a0<\/a>in the country\u2019s east, which burnt more than 3,000 hectares of peatland and pine trees, prompted evacuations before being brought under control on Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fire \u2026 must be an opportunity for us to step up our efforts,\u201d Quintin told MPs in Brussels. \u201cClimate risks, and in particular the risk of wildfires, will feature prominently in this plan.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Quintin said he would increase resources for civil protection, though opposition parties took aim at what they argued was the government\u2019s poor preparedness.<\/p>\n \u201cThe lack of resources had been identified, but nothing was done to remedy the situation,\u201d socialist lawmaker \u00c9ric Thi\u00e9baut said, citing a decline in the number of firefighters since 2023.<\/p>\n Sofie Merckx of the left-wing Workers\u2019 Party of Belgium said:\u00a0\u201cYou say you want to invest in civil defence, but your party, the Reformist Movement, has closed four out of six fire stations.\u201d<\/p>\n MP Xavier Dubois from Les Engag\u00e9s argued that Belgium would need to invest in helicopters and aeroplanes.<\/p>\n Quintin said that the government had invested in ground-based resources, while also acknowledging it would need more helicopters, and praising EU states who contributed aircraft to help bring the fire under control.<\/p>\n