Walloon Provinces Impose Drought Orders to Curb Fire Risk
Four Walloon provinces have issued drought orders restricting open-air fires and smoking in wooded areas, as a prolonged dry spell, rising temperatures and strengthening winds renew the threat of wildfires across southern Belgium. The measures took effect on Friday 25 September in Liège, Namur and Walloon Brabant, and were set to begin on Monday 28 September in Luxembourg province, according to RTBF.
All four orders run until Thursday 1 October inclusive, when the situation will be reassessed.
What the Orders Restrict
The provincial police orders — known in Belgium as arrêtés de police — target the activities most likely to spark a blaze. Open-air fires are banned in forests, woods, fields, meadows, coppices and embankments, and smoking is prohibited in woods and forests.
Barbecues remain permitted, but only outside wooded areas, well away from dry vegetation, under adult supervision and with fire-extinguishing equipment to hand. Sky lanterns are strictly prohibited. Fireworks may be set off in Namur and Walloon Brabant only with authorisation from the local mayor (bourgmestre) following a risk analysis, while Luxembourg province has banned them outright, La Libre and Belga reported.
Officials describe the latest orders as shorter and less restrictive than those imposed during the summer — six days rather than open-ended — reflecting a more contained but still elevated risk.
Why Now
The Cellule d’expertise (CELEX), a crisis assessment body, met on Thursday 24 September and concluded that the fire risk, already rising from Friday, would peak on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 September. The governors cited the absence of forecast rainfall, persistent dry weather, higher temperatures and wind in the days ahead.
The Namur governor’s office framed the decision around the state of the vegetation and the opening of hunting season on 1 October, which is expected to bring more people into forest areas. “Persistent drought, the state of the vegetation and the opening of the hunting season on 1 October, involving a greater human presence in the forest, therefore call for particular vigilance,” the communiqué said, as cited by RTBF.
An Exceptional Summer Behind the Caution
The orders follow a summer that has reset Belgium’s climate records. The Royal Meteorological Institute (IRM) confirmed that summer 2026 was the hottest ever recorded in the country, with an average temperature of 20.3°C — the first time a seasonal average has exceeded 20°C since observations began in 1833, and more than 2°C above the 17.9°C normal. The season featured three heatwaves and a record run of 64 consecutive “spring days,” with maximum temperatures at or above 20°C from 16 June to 18 August, RTBF reported.
Precipitation was well below normal across the country, falling to roughly 45% of the usual level in the Ardennes and Lorraine. Globally, too, the heat was unprecedented: the European climate service Copernicus found that August 2026 was the hottest month ever measured worldwide, with an average air temperature of 16.96°C, according to RTBF.
The Shadow of the Hautes Fagnes
The renewed caution is impossible to separate from mid-August, when a fire in the Hautes Fagnes — Belgium’s largest-ever wildfire — tore through the Fagne des Deux-Séries near Jalhay. What began as roughly one hectare around 1pm on Friday 14 August grew to nearly 3,000 hectares in under 48 hours, spreading through heathland, fragile peat bogs and surrounding forest. More than 250 responders and some 50 vehicles were deployed, alongside civil protection, the army, German assistance and foreign air support — two Dutch Chinook helicopters and two Swedish water-bomber aircraft, La DH reported.
The disaster, described as a tragedy for biodiversity, triggered a political controversy over the fire-risk alert system and prompted the Walloon Nature Minister to open a regional inquiry.
Broader Strain on Water and Infrastructure
The drought’s effects extend well beyond fire risk. The low level of the Meuse has forced Vivaqua, the Brussels water utility, to adjust its withdrawals from the Tailfer capture point, which supplies nearly a third of the capital’s water. The river’s flow has fallen to around 19 cubic metres per second — below a threshold that normally triggers cuts to 90,000 cubic metres per day — and Vivaqua has had to bring reserve capture sites in Wallonia online to meet Brussels’ daily demand of 330,000 cubic metres, RTBF reported.
What to Watch
The orders lapse on 1 October, the same day hunting season opens and the date the governors have set to reassess conditions. With no significant rainfall forecast before Sunday and the fire risk forecast to peak early next week, authorities are signalling that vigilance — not complacency — will define the coming days. The episode also adds to a growing debate in Belgium over how prepared the country is for a climate that is producing ever more frequent extremes.