The fire started in a car parked at the edge of the dunes and then spread into the dunes, according to the Bredene/Le Coq police area. The fire broke out more exactly near Vosseslag. “Five cars caught fire and this fire spread to the dunes”, explains Dennis Goes, of the local police. The heat and drought caused the fire to spread rapidly. Firefighters arrived in large numbers to control the fire and prevent it from spreading further, the wind present by the sea being an aggravating factor during a fire.
As a safety measure, the road between Bredene and Le Coq has been closed. Firefighters managed to bring the blaze under control, but they were still busy putting it out at 4 p.m., douse the ashes for a while to avoid any risk of resumption. “We hope that the fire will not start once more, because it is very windy”, fear the firefighters.
The damage caused by the flames is significant. The fire raged in a strip of dunes on the central reservation between two coastal lanes for a distance of regarding 400 meters. Five cars burned, six others were damaged in the fire.
