Belgium burns as never before: 2,700 hectares in the Hautes Fagnes and aid from three countries

The number that defines the day is Belgian: over 2,700 hectares burned in the Hautes Fagnes reserve, near Baelen, in the province of Liège, by the evening of August 15. The previous national record, dating back to 2011, stood at around 1,400 hectares: the ongoing fire has nearly doubled it. For a country of limited size and with a small forest area, this is a jump in scale.

Governor Hervé Jamar reported on August 16 that during the night winds changed direction several times — the variable that makes any fire front unpredictable — and that no homes had been destroyed. Belgium has activated the request for European assistance: Dutch and Czech helicopters and Swedish firefighting aircraft intervened on the blaze. This is the cooperation mechanism that, this season, acts as a multiplier for countries with small firefighting fleets.

It is not an isolated case. In Germany the Hürtgenwald fire, in the Eifel, has reached around 300 hectares: according to local authorities it is probably the largest ever recorded in North Rhine-Westphalia, and it led to the evacuation of 2,000 people from the Gey district. Here too the regional record matters more than the absolute figure: 300 hectares is little in Andalusia, but a historical maximum in a densely populated German region.

In Spain the dimensions change order of magnitude. The Niebla fire, in the province of Huelva, stopped advancing on August 15 after having burned over 38,000 hectares, with 681 people out of their homes. The Peñas de Riglos fire, in Aragon, reached 16,600 hectares and led to 1,045 people being evacuated from nineteen villages. In France the Luglon fire, in the Landes de Gascogne, burned around 1,600 hectares, with 650 people evacuated between Luglon and Garein.

Fire	Area burned	People evacuated
Hautes Fagnes (Belgium)	over 2,700 hectares	no homes destroyed
Hürtgenwald (Germany)	around 300 hectares	2,000
Niebla, Huelva (Spain)	over 38,000 hectares	681
Peñas de Riglos (Spain)	16,600 hectares	1,045
Luglon, Landes (France)	around 1,600 hectares	650

The aggregate picture, however, must be read carefully, because it does not confirm the intuition. The European EFFIS system counts 568,415 hectares burned in the Union as of August 13, produced by 1,647 fires. On the same date in 2025 the hectares were 775,748. The 2026 season, in terms of total area, is therefore below the previous one: what is changing is the geographical distribution, with national and regional records being set in northern European countries historically less exposed.

A methodological note should be made regarding this reconstruction: the news currently comes from a single source (a collection that aggregates EFFIS data and statements from local authorities, from the Liège governorate to the French prefectures and the Spanish civil protection); no independent confirmation available at this time.

On the opposite side of the climate, north-western Spain had a water problem the same weekend. Torrential rains caused a flood and a landslide in a rural area: two elderly women died, according to confirmation from the emergency services of the Castile and León region after the event late on Saturday night. Two infants were treated for bruises. On Sunday Spanish civil protection issued a yellow alert for storms and heavy rain in seven regions of the center and north of the country. This news too comes from a single source (Reuters, picked up by several outlets); no independent confirmation available.

The same country, in the same week, therefore counted over 54,000 hectares burned between Huelva and Aragon and two deaths from water a few hundred kilometers away.

Sources: Mappr — EFFIS data and local authorities; U.S. News/Reuters; KFGO/Reuters.