Published on 13 October 2025
Press article published by VRT news (in Dutch): https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2025/10/09/pxl-hogeschool-postgraduaat-nat…
How do we protect Belgium against wildfires, and what do we do if they do occur? This is what 15 students are learning in a new program at PXL University College Hasselt. In the postgraduate program in Wildfire Management Advisor, nature managers and firefighters are working together.
This is necessary, because the risk of wildfires is increasing, including in our country. "There is no zone where you can say: there is no danger here.
Most of the students are not new to this. Decades of experience are gathered in the classroom. The largest wildfires that have ravaged the Low Countries in recent years are listed as badges of honor. The one on the Stabrechtse Heide in the Netherlands in 2010 (220 hectares burned), the one on the Kalmthoutse Heide in 2011 (600 hectares): students sitting behind a desk here today helped extinguish them.
More to discover in the article...
Our national STEREO programme is also financing the FUELFUSION project (with PXL University College as coordinator) on the same topic