LinkedIn·Tuesday, 18 August 2026·8d ago

Belgium is now in Day 5 of the Hautes Fagnes wildfire 🔥, the country's largest wildfire on record with more than 3,000 hectares of…

AIRSCAN

2,848 followers

Belgium is now in Day 5 of the Hautes Fagnes wildfire 🔥, the country's largest wildfire on record with more than 3,000 hectares of peatland and forest burned. Smoke has reached Luxembourg, Germany, and eastern France. Our air quality sensors have been monitoring the whole thing. These graphs show PM2.5 concentrations from two monitoring stations at different distances from the fire. - At 30 km, you can see repeated spikes above 70 µg/m³ over the weekend, nearly five times the WHO's 24-hour guideline of 15 µg/m³. Each peak tracks with the smoke plume shifting direction on the wind. - At 110 km, our sensors recorded PM2.5 above 30 µg/m³ for sustained periods, more than double the WHO guideline, at a distance where you wouldn't see smoke or smell anything. A lot of people may think of wildfires, or air pollution events as something happening "over there", but the collective air quality monitoring data - from Airscan's sensors, from the thousands of sensors in the region - shows how what's happening "over there" can show up in our lungs. If you were anywhere in Belgium this weekend, the air you breathed was most likely affected by a fire you were watching from what felt like a safe distance. Here are some steps to keep safe if you're within the region: - Check local air quality levels before heading outside. - Limit outdoor activity and keep windows closed on high-pollution days. - Wear an FFP2/N95 mask if levels are high, especially for children, older adults and people with respiratory or heart conditions. #Airscan #OutdoorAirQuality #AirPollution #EnvironmentMonitoring