Firefighters spent the weekend battling what officials called Belgium's worst wildfire in recent history, tearing through the High Fens nature reserve near the German border and consuming roughly a third of the park.
Two villages evacuated as flames threatened homes, with a gymnasium opened for displaced residents, while Belgium activated the EU's civil protection mechanism to bring in water-bombing aircraft and helicopters from Sweden, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands.
Officials said shifting winds and difficult bog terrain hampered efforts, forcing crews to let parts of the heathland burn simply because they couldn't reach it. Similar fires burned in France, where 650 people evacuated in Landes, as well as Croatia, Spain and Serbia, following what Copernicus confirmed was western Europe's hottest June-to-July period on record.
The full dispatch is available from the source below.