Firefighters launched a potentially decisive push to encircle Belgium’s largest wildfire in a century on Tuesday, despite wind and rain hampering air support operations over the High Fens nature reserve.

The blaze charring the vast expanse of boggy peatlands, pine trees and hiking trails grew over the weekend to half the size of Manhattan with hundreds of firefighters working night and day to wrestle it under control.

“We are trying to definitively encircle the fire today,” regional government spokesperson Nicolas Yernaux told the AFP news agency.

In areas where firefighters could operate, he confirmed the fire was “under control and contained.”

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