Rain started falling on Monday morning over eastern Belgium, bringing crucial help to firefighters who have been battling to contain Belgium’s biggest ever wildfire.
The Belgian weather agency IRM expects between 5 and 9 millimetres of rain over the area and further rainfall on Tuesday. The temperature in the High Fens, a nature reserve in the east of Belgium burning since Friday, is set to fall to between 19 and 20 degrees Celsius (66 to 68 Fahrenheit).
Firefighting Efforts
Some 500 firefighters from across the country and neighbouring Germany and Luxembourg are on the ground to limit a blaze that has already burned about 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) in the scarcely populated area of hills covered by moorland, peat and woods.
Local authorities ordered the evacuation of some 600 people in the towns of Butgenbach and Waimes on Saturday and have told them they should not yet return to their homes. Local prosecutors have opened an investigation into the cause of the blaze.
Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
