Belgium wildfire: Rains help High Fens containment efforts

Belgian firefighters were pushing to encircle and contain the country's largest wildfire in a century .

Rain and cooler temperatures provided some natural relief against the blaze on Tuesday but also teamed up with winds to hamper air support and waterbombing operations.

The fire expanded to cover an area of around 3,000 hectares — about half the size of Manhattan in New York — by Monday.

The High Fens, or Hautes Fagnes , nature reserve is a vast expanse of boggy peatlands, pine forests and hiking trails, with parts of it difficult to access with large machinery, except from above.

"We are trying to definitively encircle the fire today," regional government spokesman Niolas Yernaux told the AFP news agency on Tuesday.

Firefighters worked through the night to try to make a crucial link-up between the eastern and northern fronts, despite difficult access conditions in the hilly and wooded area.

"We're talking about one or two kilometers, and we're on the verge of achieving it," Yernaux said.

He said that the fire was "under control and contained" in areas where firefighters could operate.