Firefighters in ‘decisive’ push to encircle Belgian wildfire

Residents in the German border town of Monschau remain under evacuation orders due to the thick smoke blanketing the area, as do some from two Belgian villages.

Those based in the hamlet of Sourbrodt were given the green light to return home on Monday night – among them Monika Schieren, a 63-year-old tourist from a German town about an hour from the High Fens.

“We had to leave the house immediately – ‘evacuation now’ – and we couldn’t take anything with us,” she told AFP after driving back over the border to collect some of her belongings.

The wildfire comes five years afer Schieren was forced to leave her home in Germany — that time because floods were sweeping the area.

“We’ve already been through a flood once, and now our vacation is gone!” she lamented.

Like much of Europe, Belgium has experienced a new spell of intense heat and drought in recent days.

Temperatures reached as high as 37C in some parts of the country last week, creating conditions conducive to wildfire outbreaks.

Local farmers have poured in to help fight the High Fens fire, working in shifts through the night to pull tankers of water from a nearby lake.

Linda Bastin, a cafe owner in Sourbrodt who briefly evacuated on Saturday as the air thickened with smoke, said she felt grateful to the emergency crews – but also to everyone who had mobilised since last Friday. 

“Hat’s off to them,” she told AFP. “The farmers, the young people – everyone is hard at work, everyone is giving it all they have.”