Germany: Evacuated villagers return after Eifel wildfire eases

After days of battling an inferno in the Eifel region of Germany, authorities declared the Hürtgenwald wildfire contained on Sunday. Around 2,000 evacuated villagers from Gey returned home. However, fire crews remained on standby, keeping watch for any resurgence of the blaze. Across the border, Belgian firefighters continued their fight against a nearby wildfire that had scorched nearly 3,000 hectares in the High Fens nature reserve.

In Saarland, a separate fast-moving blaze torched roughly 15 acres of forest. Rough terrain and limited water access complicated firefighting efforts. The Hürtgenwald fire, the largest recorded in North Rhine-Westphalia, has now been eclipsed by the Belgian inferno, which threatens to spread further. Meanwhile, a separate incident saw Russian authorities launch a criminal probe into a German journalist for allegedly inciting hate speech during a press conference in Belgrade, where she questioned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about efforts to eliminate Russian soldiers.