According to updated data from the Walloon regional government, more than 250 firefighters and other rescue service workers were mobilized overnight, but “conditions remain difficult” two days after the fire broke out in the High Fens park.
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According to the governor of Liège province, Hervé Jamar, among the rescuers are over 100 Belgian and German firefighters, police and military officers, and civil protection workers, assisted by Belgian federal police and Dutch firefighting helicopters.
Officials said that on Friday, when the fire started for still unknown reasons, 80 hectares burned, by Saturday morning the affected area had grown to 850 hectares, and by Sunday morning the fire had spread to 3,000 hectares.
On Saturday, as the wind direction changed and smoke spread in the area, about 600 residents in the nearby municipalities of Verviers and Bütgenbach in Liège province near the German border were ordered to evacuate. Officials also advised tourists to leave, and a nearby sports hall was opened to accommodate evacuees.
According to officials, by Sunday morning no houses had been damaged, although the fire was still close to residential areas and thick smoke lingered. They urged people not to approach the fire zone and warned that unnecessary traffic could hinder rescue vehicles and complicate firefighting operations.
The fire broke out after weeks of unusually hot and dry weather. The mixture of heather and peat bogs in the High Fens complicated efforts to control the flames.
In the nearby German town of Monschau, local authorities warned overnight that the fire was about 3 km from the border and said firefighters were on alert. Early Sunday morning, the city website recommended that residents of three remote border districts temporarily leave the area, as officials did not rule out health risks from the smoke.
This week Belgium was hit by another wave of intense heat, with temperatures reaching about 37 degrees Celsius in some parts of the country on Friday.
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