Belgium has activated the EU Civil Protection Mechanism as a wildfire in the High Fens nature reserve expanded into the country’s largest on record, prompting a multinational aerial response with helicopters and water bombers from the Netherlands, Czechia and Sweden. Belgian police helicopters were already dropping water over the blaze, which has forced evacuations in some nearby villages and stretched firefighting efforts in difficult terrain near the German border.
The fire, which broke out on Friday, spread rapidly across dry peat and forest land in eastern Belgium, where shifting winds and rough ground have hindered ground crews. Local authorities have relied on Belgian firefighters, the army and farmers hauling water to reservoirs used by aircraft, while additional European assets were expected to become operational after arrival. Reports put the burned area at between about 2,000 and 2,700 hectares, well above the previous High Fens record set in 2011.
The deployment underscores how quickly European civil protection resources can be assembled for a domestic emergency when aerial capacity becomes decisive. Belgian officials described the response as heavily dependent on helicopters and fixed-wing water-bombing aircraft to reach areas that ground vehicles could not access.