Belgium Faces Wildfire Risks as Southern Europe Burns

As devastating megafires continue to ravage Southern Europe, Belgian experts are examining what lessons the country can draw from the crisis — and one of the most important problems they’ve identified is described as “typically Belgian.” With about 20 people dead, hundreds injured, and tens of thousands evacuated across France, Spain, and Italy by late July, the 2026 wildfire season has become one of the most destructive in European history, according to Wikipedia’s overview of the 2026 Southern Europe wildfires.

The Megafires That Shook Europe

The fires around Bordeaux in France have been particularly devastating, destroying approximately 42,000 hectares and forcing over 200,000 residents to evacuate. In Spain, two fires near Madrid merged on July 24 into a single blaze that destroyed 15,000 hectares and forced 60,000 people from their homes, prompting the government to declare a national state of emergency on July 25. The fires even produced the first pyrocumulonimbus cloud ever observed in European wildfires — a phenomenon previously seen only in Australia and North America.

Belgium has not stood idly by. Belgian volunteer firefighters from ERA-BE (Emergency Response Alliance Belgium) have been deployed to Portugal since early July, with rotations continuing until mid-September, as VRT NWS reported. On July 29, Belgian military personnel with Panther fire trucks and water supply vehicles were sent to southern France after France triggered the EU Civil Protection Mechanism, as Flows.be detailed.

The “Typically Belgian” Problem

But while Belgium helps its neighbors fight the flames, experts are asking a more uncomfortable question: how prepared is Belgium itself? The answer, according to researchers, reveals a vulnerability that is distinctly Belgian.

“One of the most important problems is typically Belgian: there is still no national strategy to map fire risk,” says Jan Baetens, professor at Ghent University and a leading researcher on wildfires in Belgium since 2016, as quoted in De Morgen’s analysis. “The Agency for Nature and Forests and SPW Environnement follow this as best they can, but a scientific foundation is certainly needed, as is the case in countries with more wildfire experience.”

The fragmentation of forest ownership is a particularly acute issue. In Flanders, 64% of forests are in private hands, and many are small, fragmented parcels divided among numerous owners. This makes active management more difficult and less profitable, meaning many small owners don’t manage their forests in a fire-safe manner — failing to remove dead wood or shrubs, or to create firebreaks. As Landelijk Vlaanderen noted in its analysis, the government cannot possibly control everything, and many owners simply don’t know the dangers.

Not Just a Climate Issue

Experts argue that the megafires in Southern Europe are not purely a climate issue but also a management issue. Bart Muys, professor of forest management at KU Leuven, points to dramatic landscape changes over the past century: agriculture, extensive livestock farming, and open areas that once alternated with forests have been abandoned, creating large continuous forest masses.

“Forests that are very homogeneous in structure, composition, and height form a continuous blanket of flammable biomass,” Muys said, as KU Leuven reported. His prescription is clear: “A landscape where more wood is harvested again becomes more open, more resistant to fire, and safer.” He also argues that “more of the money for fighting fires should go to prevention.”

This perspective is echoed in Knack’s analysis, which emphasizes that while climate change plays a role, the lack of forest management and land-use changes are equally critical factors.

Growing Risks at Home

While a megafire on the scale of Bordeaux is considered unlikely in Belgium due to more favorable weather conditions and smaller, more fragmented nature areas, experts warn that the risk is growing. The most dangerous areas are the heathland landscapes in the Kempen (Antwerp and Limburg provinces), such as the Kalmthoutse Heide, where experts fear a heath fire could eventually spread to nearby residential areas.

Belgium’s largest recorded wildfire was in April 2011 in the Hoge Venen (High Fens), destroying 1,300 hectares over two days — still 30 times less than the Bordeaux fires. But as VRT NWS reported, the risk is no longer theoretical. “Wildfires are no longer a future scenario that only plays out in Southern Europe or North America,” says Michiel De Rop, Fire Safety Engineer at Sweco Belgium. “In Belgium too, we must think today about how to make our infrastructure, buildings, and communities more resilient against a changing climate.”

Steven Vermeulen of the CERAC climate risk center emphasizes the human factor: “Climate change makes fires spread faster, but the spark comes in 90 percent of cases from human failure, such as carelessness or barbecues.” He stresses the need for “awareness and sensitization.”

What Belgium Is Doing

Belgium has made some progress. The Civil Protection has purchased Bambi buckets for helicopters to scoop water from ponds or swimming pools, and the fire brigade has invested in equipment and training abroad. A new postgraduate program in wildfire fighting at PXL Hasselt, launched in October 2025, trains firefighters and nature managers. Belgium can also call on neighboring countries for help.

However, gaps remain. The Walloon fire brigade has been requesting a firefighting aircraft for years, as Knack reported, though large Canadair aircraft are not practical in Belgium due to a lack of suitable landing areas and large water bodies. What’s also missing, according to Baetens, is a comprehensive national nature risk map and a fire spread model that can predict how a fire will develop — “Belgium is still behind the times on that front.”

Lessons for the Future

The megafires of 2026 have underscored that wildfire prevention is not just a climate question but also a management and governance question. For Belgium, the lessons are clear: address the fragmentation of forest ownership, invest in prevention rather than just firefighting, develop national risk assessment tools, and raise public awareness about the dangers of careless behavior in nature.

As the climate continues to warm and drought periods lengthen, the question is no longer whether Belgium will face significant wildfires, but when — and whether the country will be ready when it happens.