High Fens fire: Two firefighters hospitalised as blaze now contained, impact on nature reserve’s wildlife

The wildfire that has been ravaging the High Fens since Friday is now contained and no new fires broke out overnight, RTBF reported on Tuesday morning.

But the intensity of the flames has left a desolate, charred landscape across some 3,000 hectares of the nature reserve in East Belgium.

Two firefighters suffered carbon monoxide poisoning and were taken to hospital where their condition has been described as stable, confirmed Nicolas Yernaux, spokesperson for the Walloon Public Service. They had been responding to a fire on the northern front of the blaze, an area difficult to access.

Residents of Sourbrodt, who evacuated the village in the municipality of Waimes on Saturday as a precautionary measure, were able to return home Monday evening.

While the fire did not spread on Monday, it is not yet contained and the firefighters' work will continue for “weeks,” according to interior minister Bernard Quintin.

As the High Fens plateau consists of peat bogs, the fire will continue to smoulder underground even when no longer burning on the surface. The site will need to be monitored to prevent any flare-ups in the coming weeks. Only a small amount of rain is forecast on Tuesday morning.

The blaze again required the deployment of significant air resources on Monday to assist firefighters and civil protection officers. Germany and Norway each sent two helicopters, which joined two aircraft from the Belgian federal police, a Dutch helicopter, and two Swedish seaplanes. The aircraft were only able to operate in the late afternoon on Monday due to the weather and low cloud cover.

Some 500 people, including farmers, members of the Belgian Armed Forces and German firefighters are working on the ground. Since the beginning of the fire they have been joined by some 120 local and federal police officers.

The Liège public prosecutor's office has opened an investigation to determine the cause of the fire. It will not officially begin until the site is accessible.

For information on the ongoing situation, the public is asked to call 1771, not 112, which remains the emergency number.

Impact on flora and fauna

Amid the major firefighting operation in the nature reserve, there is concern for the flora and fauna that inhabit this highly biodiverse ecosystem, reports RTBF.

The University of Liège’s scientific station in the High Fens is located at Mont Rigi, between Baraque Michel and the reserve’s highest point, the Signal de Botrange.

For over a century, its mission has been to study and protect the unique Fens environment and its two remaining active peat bogs. Although it is too early to assess the full extent of the damage to the Walloon Fens and the Cléfaye Fens, the station’s director Laurane Winandy described the potential impact of the largest blaze in recent history on their wildlife and natural habitat.

“The most mobile species, particularly medium-sized mammals or large ungulate mammals, normally have time to escape the fire,” she explained.

However, for other, less mobile species such as amphibians, the situation is more complicated. “There are four species of amphibians that can reproduce in peat bog ponds: the common toad, the common frog, the alpine newt and the palmate newt,” she said.

Reptiles, such as the viviparous lizard, “very common in the burned area,” as well as amphibians, will usually take refuge in the ground, said the scientist. “The problem is that here, we have a case of a fire that is quite deep, that will go deep into the soil. There will be significant mortality there,” she continued.

It is possible, thought, that some amphibians, adult newts for example, have returned to the forests as they usually do at this time of year, leaving the larvae behind in the ponds.

The burned area is also a refuge for many birds. Some will have been able to escape, but younger birds will have had more difficulty getting away.

The black grouse is an emblematic bird of the High Fens, which was on the brink of extinction less than 10 years ago. For several years, a partnership has existed between Belgium and Sweden to release individuals into the Fens. In May, 10 males and 25 females were reintroduced into the nature reserve. The research team at the station hope that transmitters fitted to some of these birds may allow their location to be determined in the coming days.

For all these species, the great unknown is also what the site will look like after the fire and which species will have survived or will return to settle there.

Photos: ©Liège fire service Zone 2 Facebook page; ©Parc naturel Hautes-Fagnes-Eifel