High Fens Fire Rages On: Mini-Tornado, Political Questions

Belgium’s largest wildfire on record continues to burn in the High Fens (Hoge Venen) nature reserve, with authorities deploying firefighting planes and helicopters as Governor of Liège Hervé Jamar urges cautious optimism. The fire, which has consumed approximately 3,000 hectares of unique peatland since it broke out on August 14, has now been encircled but remains uncontrolled, according to VRT NWS.

A Fire Unlike Any Before

The blaze, which erupted in the vast expanse of boggy peatlands and pine forests near the German border, has become the largest wildfire ever recorded in Belgian history. International assistance has been critical: two Norwegian helicopters, two German helicopters, a Dutch Chinook, two Swedish firefighting planes, and two helicopters from the Belgian federal police are currently deployed. Approximately 200 firefighters from Flanders, Wallonia, Brussels, and Germany remain active on the ground, with as many as 500 emergency workers and 120 vehicles deployed at the peak of the operation.

The fire’s behavior is particularly challenging because it is burning through peatland, which has been dried to bone by an exceptionally dry summer. As NOS reported, the dried peat is highly flammable and allows the fire to smolder underground, making it extremely difficult to extinguish. Niels Bouwens of Network Brandweer explained that the peat consists of bone-dry moss: “The rainwater runs over it, but where it smolders underneath, it doesn’t reach. It would have to rain for weeks to make the peat area mossy and water-retaining again.”

Mini-Tornado Adds to the Chaos

Compounding the challenges facing emergency services, a mini-tornado struck the nearby town of Büllingen on Tuesday evening, severely damaging a home. Mayor Rainer Stoffels confirmed that the house is half-destroyed and no longer habitable, though the occupant was not at home at the time and no injuries were reported.

“Our fire brigade has been working on the fire in the High Fens for 6 days,” Stoffels told VRT NWS. “This is an additional natural catastrophe. It requires a lot of energy.” The severe thunderstorms also uprooted numerous trees across the region, blocking roads and forcing additional firefighting interventions near Malmedy.

Political Questions Mount

As the fire enters its seventh day, attention is increasingly turning to political accountability. The Chamber Committee on Interior Affairs convened early on Thursday to question Interior Minister Bernard Quintin (MR) about the country’s preparedness for large-scale wildfires.

The political scrutiny centers on warnings that appear to have been ignored. Approximately 1.5 years ago, the Center for Climate Change Risk Analysis (CERAC) published a report warning about the risk of forest fires in Belgium. MP Arthur Orlians (Anders) raised the issue directly: “We were indeed not ready as a country. That is not the fault of this government alone. But I do ask myself what was done with the report from CERAC. A year and a half ago, they already warned in a report about the risk of forest fires, but nothing was done with it,” he said, as reported by Het Laatste Nieuws.

MP Matti Vandemaele (Groen) was equally blunt: “We were clearly not prepared. At the beginning of the summer, I already asked in parliament what we would do in case of large forest fires like those raging in France or Spain. If this happens in Belgium, we are in trouble, I said then. And that turned out to be true.”

Federal Climate Minister Jean-Luc Crucke (Les Engagés) defended his response, saying he immediately forwarded the CERAC report to all fellow ministers. “But that report was about a timeframe of 15 to 20 years. So it is coming much earlier than expected, also for the scientists. But we knew for years that this could happen.”

Interior Minister Quintin pushed back against criticism that emergency services were unprepared. “That our emergency services were not prepared is absolutely not correct,” he said during a visit to the crisis center in Sourbrodt, adding that “it is clearly the climate change that caused the fire to derail.”

Ecological Devastation

The ecological impact of the fire is profound and long-lasting. The High Fens is a unique high peatland ecosystem that has taken centuries to develop. Peat grows only about 1 millimeter per year, meaning the thick layers now burning took hundreds of years to form.

Professor Kris Verheyen of UGent warned that recovery could take decades or even centuries. “The reconstruction of that peat can take decades and perhaps even centuries,” he told VRT NWS. Unlike the 2011 fire, which occurred in spring when the ground was still wet, this fire is burning deep into the dried-out peat, causing far more extensive damage.

The fire also releases stored CO2 into the atmosphere, contributing to the very climate change that created the conditions for the blaze. WWF Belgium called it another alarm signal about climate change, noting that the peatlands act as a natural carbon sink and water battery. “By going up in flames, that sponge that protected us against drought and floods and that captured carbon now becomes a source of CO2,” said Laurence Drèze, policy officer at WWF-Belgium, as reported by De Wereld Morgen.

A Pattern of Unheeded Warnings

The fire has exposed systemic gaps in Belgium’s wildfire preparedness. In March 2026, the Belgian Wildfire Network—a collaboration between UGent and ULiege—delivered a report to all competent ministers warning about the increasing risk of forest fires in Belgium. The report specifically noted a lack of aerial capacity, expertise, awareness, and data, and it was never discussed by the ministers.

Belgium lacks its own firefighting aircraft. The only Belgian firefighting planes, operated by Aquarius Aerial Firefighting, had their lease contract terminated and left the country in August 2026. The country relies on federal police helicopters and international assistance through the EU Civil Protection Mechanism.

Luc Bas, Director of CERAC, posed a pointed question: “How many more firefighting helicopters do you need if we don’t adapt our logic?” The Greenpeace analysis had already warned that Belgium is poorly prepared for the growing threat of wildfires, identifying the country’s fragmented nature areas and limited aerial capacity as key vulnerabilities.

What’s Next

As firefighting aircraft resume operations with improving weather conditions, the immediate priority remains containing the smoldering peat fires. The fire has been encircled, but ground temperatures remain at 120 to 180 degrees Celsius in some areas, and the risk of flare-ups persists.

The political fallout is likely to continue. The parliamentary committee’s questioning of Minister Quintin on Thursday marks only the beginning of what could be a prolonged accountability process. Questions about the purchase of Chinook helicopters, the restructuring of Civil Protection, and the coordination between fire services, police, and defense are all on the table.

For the High Fens themselves, the road to recovery will be measured in decades, if not centuries. As DW noted, the fire has ravaged an area half the size of Manhattan, destroying unique biodiversity that cannot be replaced. The question now is whether Belgium will learn from this disaster—or whether the warnings that were ignored this time will be heeded before the next fire breaks out.