Belgium's fire of the century now 'under control'

"At this stage, the fire is now under control in its entirety and should no longer spread," barring a major change in weather conditions or other unforeseen factors, said the local governor's office.

The High Fens fire mushroomed over the weekend to half the size of Manhattan - 3,000 hectares (7,500 acres) - charring a huge expanse of peatland, pine trees and hiking trails.

Firefighters wrestled "numerous flare-ups" under control overnight, working in very difficult conditions as powerful winds buffeted the eastern region bordering Germany - with a "mini-tornado" even striking a town outside the park.

But the governor's office said the fire was now fully contained on its western side, with operations continuing to the east to finish the job.

Seven aircraft from Germany, Norway, Belgium and Sweden were carrying out water drops in and around the burned perimeter where ground temperatures remained "extremely high".

Aerial support crews, grounded by bad weather earlier in the week, hoped to keep operating until nightfall, when civil protection drones would take over the task of monitoring for "potential flare-ups," the governor's statement said.

Even once under control, officials have warned it will take weeks or even months of soaking and dousing to prevent the High Fens blaze from reigniting.

Around 350 firefighters and other emergency personnel remain deployed in the effort, as do the many farmers who mobilised in support of the operation since last week.

But authorities have lifted all evacuation orders in the border region since Wednesday, allowing the residents of several Belgian hamlets and a town on the German border to return home.

Germany's contingent of firefighters are due to leave the area, to be offset with Belgian firefighters including volunteers, the governor's office said.

Europe has been swept by weeks of devastating wildfires fuelled by dry conditions and a historically hot summer, with France, Greece, Portugal and Spain also battling major blazes.

Tackling the High Fens fire was made much harder by the fens' terrain - a patchwork of heath, peat bogs and raised wooden boardwalks.

The blaze broke out for reasons still unknown in an area that was ravaged by massive fires in 1911, during a similar period of heatwaves.

It was the country's largest wildfire since.

French heatwave ties for country's longest on record

France's latest heatwave has already tied for the country's longest on record after lasting more than three weeks, the country's meteorological service has said.

France has been hit by three heatwaves in quick succession in a historically hot European summer during which the continent has seen widespread drought and wildfires fuelled by global warming.

The latest, which began in late July and has yet to be officially declared over, "continued Wednesday, for a duration of 23 days," Meteo-France told AFP.

"It is the longest heatwave on record, tied with July 1983."

The national average temperature was 24.7C for Wednesday, including both daytime and nighttime readings, the service said.

Meteo-France defines a national heatwave as a period lasting several days during which temperatures are significantly higher than normal.

A heatwave begins when the indicator reaches or exceeds 25.3C for one day and the national average temperature remains at or above 23.4C for at least three consecutive days.

It ends when it drops below 23.4C for at least three days in a row or falls briefly below 22.4C.

A spell of unusually warm weather in May, for example, was not intense enough to meet the agency's threshold for a heatwave.

In addition to the current heatwave, France also suffered under a 14-day spell in June and 16 days in July.

The June heatwave was record-breaking in terms of intensity, with temperatures spiking above 40C in many places.

However, a heatwave in August 2003 remains the most severe observed to date - based on an indicator combining heat duration and intensity.

Germany reports record 14,000 heat-related deaths

Germany registered a record of around 14,000 heat-related deaths this summer, official data has revealed.

Around 9,600 of those deaths were recorded in one week in late June when Germany baked in temperatures of over 40C, according to the Robert Koch Institute.

The heatwaves and drought have fuelled a historically hot summer in Europe, contributing to a spike in heat-related mortality in the worst-hit countries.

Spain's public health institute registered nearly 4,500 heat-related deaths since 1 June.

French health authorities said they had seen more than 7,300 excess deaths over the same period.

In Germany, the largest share of heat-related deaths occurred in the over-75 age group, the public health authority said in a statement.

"In some cases - such as heatstroke - exposure to heat leads directly to death, whereas in most instances, death results from a combination of heat exposure and pre-existing medical conditions," said its report.

"Consequently, heat is not usually listed as the underlying cause of death on the death certificate; instead, statistical methods must be employed to estimate the extent of heat-related deaths."

The institute said it has collected such heat mortality data for the past decade and that the previous record was 8,900 heat-related deaths in 2018. A separate report by a medical publication had estimated 10,000 heat deaths in 1994.

In some years, heat deaths had dropped below 2,000, said the report, adding that "these differences can be attributed to the varying severity of the heatwaves".

This summer, heat and drought have battered Europe's biggest economy, also fuelling wildfires, reducing crop yields and dropping water levels in major rivers used for cargo shipping.

This week ministers from the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), junior coalition partners to Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservatives, said Berlin must enshrine the need for "climate adaptation and nature conservation" in the German constitution, known as the Basic Law.

The SPD's Environment Minister Carsten Schneider said the climate crisis was now a "tangible reality" but that current law limits what his ministry can do in response, including in helping states and local governments.

The group of ministers urged changes to urban planning legislation and building codes, and new labour laws to address working in high temperatures.

Heat impacts hospitals, nursing homes

The party's former health minister, Karl Lauterbach, supported the push, arguing that municipalities need financial help to adapt to a changing climate.

"Effective heat protection costs a lot of money," he told the Rheinische Post daily. "Many municipalities are heavily in debt and simply cannot finance the necessary measures on their own."

Earlier this month the German Association of Towns and Municipalities argued that billions are needed to help hospitals and nursing homes, which often have no air-conditioning, adapt to scorching temperatures.

"Hospitals need air conditioning - not only for patients but also for staff," its president Ralph Spiegler told the Rheinische Post. "We see an immense need for investment here, estimated at a minimum of €20 billion."

"It is also essential to specifically address the situation in retirement and nursing homes in order to account for climate change and equip their facilities in a way that is adapted to the climate."

Mr Lauterbach, who has a doctoral degree in medical science, said the true number of heat deaths this year may be even higher than the statistics indicate.

"The Robert Koch Institute employs a rather conservative methodology," he said. "This means the number of heat-related deaths is likely being underestimated."

In general, heat-related deaths are not easily captured, he said.

"Very few people die of classic heatstroke during hot weather," he said, with most deaths occurring in combination with other conditions.

"For instance, high heat stress can contribute to a stroke developing from pre-existing atrial fibrillation.

Formally, the person might die of a stroke, but without the heat, it might not have happened."