The Belgian government will introduce a national resilience plan to strengthen the country’s ability to respond to fires and other climate-related crises following its largest forest fire in more than a century.
Interior Minister Bernard Quintin announced the plan on Thursday as parliament’s home affairs committee met to debate this week’s wildfire in the High Fens nature reserve, Euractiv reported.
The blaze in the country’s east, which burnt more than 3,000 hectares of peatland and pine trees, prompted evacuations before being brought under control on Thursday.
“The fire … must be an opportunity for us to step up our efforts,” Quintin told MPs in Brussels. “Climate risks, and in particular the risk of wildfires, will feature prominently in this plan.”
Quintin said he would increase resources for civil protection, though opposition parties took aim at what they argued was the government’s poor preparedness.
“The lack of resources had been identified, but nothing was done to remedy the situation,” socialist lawmaker Éric Thiébaut said, citing a decline in the number of firefighters since 2023.
Sofie Merckx of the left-wing Workers’ Party of Belgium said: “You say you want to invest in civil defence, but your party, the Reformist Movement, has closed four out of six fire stations.”
MP Xavier Dubois from Les Engagés argued that Belgium would need to invest in helicopters and aeroplanes.
Quintin said that the government had invested in ground-based resources, while also acknowledging it would need more helicopters, and praising EU states who contributed aircraft to help bring the fire under control.