Zombie Fire

Belgium just lived through its largest wildfire in a century. The High Fens nature reserve, a raised peat bog near the German border, went up in flames. Seven days, 3,000 hectares, hundreds of firefighters, and aerial support from four countries.

The fire started on August 14 and spread with terrifying speed. It went from 80 hectares on Friday to 850 by Saturday morning, then 3,000 by Sunday. That is half the size of Manhattan, charring peatland, pine trees, and hiking trails in a nature reserve that took centuries to form[1].

The terrain made fighting the fire brutally difficult. The High Fens are a patchwork of heath, peat bogs, and wooden boardwalks where fire engines risk sinking into the ground. Firefighters had to let parts of the heathland burn because the area was simply too inaccessible[2].

Luxembourg sent firefighters. So did Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Norway. Belgium has no aerial firefighting capability of its own, a fact that opposition parties raised in parliament afterward. Interior Minister Bernard Quintin defended the response and promised a national resilience plan for climate-related threats[3].

Here is the part that stays with you. The fire is out, but it is not really out. Peat is spongy, carbon-rich, and highly flammable. Embers can smoulder underground for weeks or months, then reignite when wind and dry conditions align. Firefighters call these "zombie fires." The regional spokesman said forest workers expect to monitor smouldering ground at least until the end of autumn[4].

The peat itself is the tragedy. It took hundreds of years to form. A ecologist quoted by VRT noted that after a smaller fire in 2011, the ground was still damp in spring, so the fire could not penetrate the soil. This time, after an exceptionally dry summer, the fire reached deep into the peat. Restoration could take decades, perhaps centuries[5].

About 600 people were evacuated from hamlets near the border. All evacuation orders were lifted by Wednesday. No homes were destroyed. In one small piece of good news, firefighters rescued a black grouse from the heart of the fire zone, an endangered species with only 14 males and four or five females left in all of Belgium[6].

The fire has reignited a debate about whether Belgium, and Europe more broadly, is prepared for climate-driven wildfires. The EU's Copernicus service confirmed western Europe experienced its hottest June-to-July period on record. France, Greece, and Portugal have all battled devastating fires this summer. A country known for rain and grey skies is now buying water-bombing helicopters[7].

One resident, returning to her village after 17 years abroad, stood in front of a supermarket and said: "I came back and everything is gone." The High Fens, she said, were unique. She is right. They were Europe's largest raised bog, a landscape that survived since the last ice age. Some of it will grow back. Some of it will not.