Belgium Fire & Heat Status
Live picture: 111 deduped satellite heat locations in the last 24 h. Belgium can look busy on the Europe heat map because the country is small, densely populated and close to industrial and agricultural heat sources. Treat the dots as a prompt to check official regional fire-risk warnings, not as confirmed wildfire incidents.
Live hotspot list
Tap any hotspot below to show it on the map. Official incident matches are shown where available; unmatched areas remain satellite heat clusters from the last 24 h, grouped by nearest locality, strongest first. The heat may be in countryside or industrial land outside the named place.
Robertville1 area · extreme heat signal
Jalhay1 area · extreme heat signal
Zelzate1 area · moderate heat signal
Kallo1 area · low heat signal
Major wildfires in Belgium right now
No wildfire affecting travel, all five Flemish provinces on code orange, and Hainaut's fire order now runs to 31 August
Belgium has a wildfire that matters. Fire broke out in the Hautes Fagnes at Baelen on Friday 14 August and has burned across the plateau since, and it is the largest ever recorded in the country. Hervé Jamar, governor of Liège province, said on Sunday morning that more than 250 people and some fifty vehicles worked through the night, among them German and Belgian firefighters, about 70 police officers, 40 soldiers and 20 civil protection staff, and that the wind changed direction repeatedly overnight. Belgium called on the European civil protection mechanism at midday on Saturday. No house has been touched by the flames so far.
Access to the Fagnes is banned across four communes: Baelen, Jalhay, Waimes and Malmedy. The N68 over the plateau is closed to everything but the emergency services, and there are reports that the N672 between Sourbrodt, Eupen and Jalhay is closed with it. The car parks at the Gileppe and Eupen lakes are shut. La Libre reported on Sunday morning that the lake at Robertville is being kept clear of boats so that helicopters can fill from it, and that tourist activity there is limited to the Robertville-les-Bains beach. If you can smell smoke, the authorities have asked people not to call 112: the number for information is 1771.
Streets in Sourbrodt, in the commune of Waimes, and in Bütgenbach were evacuated on Saturday, and about twenty people spent the night in the sports hall at Malmedy. The governor said on Sunday morning that they cannot go home yet and that no time has been set, because the smoke is still heavy and the fire is still close. Several fronts were burning on Sunday morning. Smoke has been noticed a long way off, over the south of Namur province and the Condroz-Famenne.
Away from the Fagnes the rest of the country is dry rather than burning. The Agentschap voor Natuur en Bos has all five Flemish provinces on code orange, high danger: Antwerp, Limburg, East Flanders, Flemish Brabant and West Flanders. Paths there are open and you can still walk and cycle, but lighting any fire is banned, smoking in woods and nature reserves is banned, children should not be left to roam the terrain unwatched, and fire crews are on heightened standby. In Hainaut the governor extended his police order again on 15 August and it now runs to 31 August: no open fires in gardens, woods, fields, meadows or coppices, no wood or charcoal barbecues on public land unless the commune allows it, no thermal weedkillers except for properly equipped professionals, no sky lanterns, no fireworks without communal authorisation, and no throwing a cigarette end or any burning object into nature.
Check directly: IRM/KMI warnings · National Crisis Centre
This is traveller-focused editorial from the daily morning run, and every claim in it is checked against an official source before it is published; the official sources above are always the authority. In danger anywhere in the EU, call 112.