In Belgium, the emergency services are hoping to contain the fire that has been raging for days in the High Fens nature reserve. “The goal is to push back the fires and keep the areas that we have saved so far fire-free,” said Tobias Schell, fire department spokesman in the neighboring town of Monschau, to the German Press Agency. A bright spot is the rain, which is also forecast for Wednesday. “That definitely plays into our hands.”
But the situation is not yet under control. The biggest problem is the northeastern flank of the fire, which is particularly difficult to reach. “This is our critical point,” said Schell. This fire line is 2.3 kilometers from the German border. “As long as we don't see a clear easing of tensions, the evacuation will not be lifted,” he said, referring to the approximately 30 citizens from Monschau-Kalterherberg who had to leave their homes on Sunday evening. There are rumors to the contrary on the Internet, but they are false, emphasized Schell.
On Tuesday, fighting the fire was hampered by smoke. Firefighting helicopters were therefore unable to take off. “There was an exploratory flight, but it was canceled fairly quickly because it simply didn’t make any sense,” said Schell. On Tuesday, the smell of fire could still be felt more than 100 kilometers away in North Rhine-Westphalia. In the evening, however, the Cologne fire department reported that the “odor situation” no longer existed. It is not yet possible to predict how the smoke will develop on Wednesday, said Schell.
In the High Fens, 3,000 hectares of natural area went up in flames. Since the beginning of the week, North Rhine-Westphalia has also been supporting the Belgian emergency services with one of its two “Fire Fighters” – a kind of mix between a forestry vehicle and a fire fighting tank. The NRW Ministry of Agriculture announced that these off-road vehicles could also be used where conventional fire engines would reach their limits. They could dispense around 30,000 liters of water per hour. They are an important support, especially in the difficult-to-access moorland area of the High Fens.
The environmental organization WWF sees enormous ecological damage caused by the fire. “It will take decades for nature to recover,” Corentin Rousseau from WWF Belgium told the Belgian newspaper “Het Laatste Nieuws”. “The large amount of ash disrupts the balance in the soil.”
According to experts, a reintroduction project for rare capercaillie is also at acute risk if it does not fail. 35 of the animals were abandoned in the High Fens in the spring, as the newspaper “De Standaard” reported. Biologist Tobias Ceulemans from the University of Antwerp said he did not expect the colony to survive: "Their habitat was in the middle of the 3,000 hectare area that went up in flames in the High Fens."
The forest fire in the Hürtgen Forest in the Eifel, however, is under control. Emergency services are still fighting against embers there. “What is being achieved here in the Hürtgenwald and in Monschau under the most difficult conditions deserves the highest respect,” said NRW Agriculture Minister Silke Gorißen (CDU) during a visit on Tuesday. "The current forest fires show us very clearly how vulnerable our forests are in the face of heat, drought, storms and pests. The damage is immense and will concern us for a long time."
