WorldBelgium’s High Fens blaze highlights risks from peat and climate conditions

Heavy rain and water-dropping aircraft have not fully contained a vast peat fire in Belgium’s eastern High Fens. About 3,000 hectares of natural forest have become a smouldering wasteland, with the fire spreading a metre underground through bog peat. Smoke has hospitalized two firefighters, displaced residents and raised evacuation concerns in nearby Monschau, Germany.