San Francisco Frontiers - Rain brings respite as Belgium wrestles massive wildfire

Europe has been swept by weeks of devastating wildfires fuelled by dry conditions and a historically hot summer that has already contributed to the deaths of thousands of people.

France, Greece, Portugal and Spain were also battling major fires over the weekend.

In Belgium, currently the continent's most urgent fire front, around 500 firefighters and emergency crews have mobilised to contain the blaze, which broke out Friday for reasons still unknown in the High Fens park, an area of boggy peatlands, pine forests and hiking trails.

Water-bombing aircraft and farmers' tractors have joined forces to help tame the fire, which as of Sunday had spread to 3,000 hectares (7,500 acres) -- an area half the size of Manhattan.

But Tony Hosmans, a crisis management spokesman, told reporters Monday the blaze was no longer advancing towards the German border -- after creeping nearer over the weekend, prompting an evacuation order in the border town of Monschau.

The rain falling Monday on the area -- with more forecast on and off throughout the week -- was a welcome development.

"The wind is favourable and the current rainfall is helping to contain the spread" of the fire, said Hosmans.

"At present, the fire is contained wherever intervention is possible," he said -- although he cautioned it had not yet been brought under control, with an aerial reconnaissance mission due to deliver a fuller picture later in the day.

The blaze broke out in an area that was ravaged by massive fires in 1911, during a similar period of heatwaves and drought.

It is the country's largest wildfire since.

A huge area at the border has been blanketed by a thick plume of yellowish smoke, with fumes detected as far as eastern France, where authorities issued an air-pollution alert.

The smoke hazard has triggered the evacuation of two Belgian villages, whose residents were still under instruction to stay away.

- 'Happening to us' -

On-site operations have been made much harder by the fens' terrain -- a patchwork of heath, peat bogs and raised wooden boardwalks where heavy vehicles risk sinking into the ground, and firefighters struggle to tackle the fire at close range.

They have been counting heavily on aerial assistance to bring the situation under control, with two water-bombing aircraft from Sweden and two Dutch military Chinook helicopters backing up two Belgian helicopters on site.

Local farmers have also poured in to help battle the blaze, with a ballet of tractors pulling in tankers of water drawn from a nearby lake.

"We've provided drinks and some meals," Annick Dodemont, who runs one of many local businesses supporting the firefighting operation, told AFP.

"We can't go up there ourselves, so we help however we can," said the 41-year-old.

Like much of Europe, Belgium has experienced a new spell of intense heat and drought in recent days.

Temperatures reached as high as 37C in some parts of the country on Friday, creating conditions conducive to wildfire outbreaks.

"It's pretty shocking," Dodemont said from her restaurant in Eupen. "You always think it happens somewhere else. Well, not anymore. It's happening to us."

N.Flores--SFF