Shifting Winds Hamper Efforts To Contain Wildfire In Eastern Belgium

BRUSSELS, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 17th Aug, 2026) Firefighting teams continued battling a major wildfire in eastern Belgium on Sunday evening after it burned around 3,000 hectares of land in a nature reserve. Belgian Interior Minister Bernard Quintin said emergency teams were facing extremely difficult conditions due to relatively strong and shifting winds. He said the winds were completely unpredictable, changing direction through a full 360 degrees over the course of a single day. He added that the direction of the fire's spread remained uncertain, noting that the blaze in the High Fens nature reserve continued to move towards the south-south-east. Belgian news agency Belga reported that the prosecutor's office in Liège province had opened an investigation to determine the cause of the fire.