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East Flanders helps farmers make barns and farm infrastructure safer against fire

Updated 29 June 2026, 12:00 UTC | Ghent: The Province of East Flanders is helping farmers make barns and farm infrastructure safer against fire, VRT NWS reported on 29 June. Prevent Agri separately listed a 12 June notice saying the province and Prevent Agri are working together on fire-safe agricultural and horticultural businesses. The province’s own agriculture pages say its Landbouwloket provides advice, information and support to land and horticulture businesses.

Belgium Impulse Editorial·29 June 2026·1 min read·5 sources
Key signal

Farm fires can destroy buildings, machinery, feed stocks and animals in minutes. For farmers, the direct issue is business continuity and safety on the farm. For residents in rural municipalities, the issue is also emergency response, smoke risk and the resilience of local food production.

The subject is a Flemish provincial farm-safety initiative in Oost-Vlaanderen. The named actors are the Province of East Flanders, its Landbouwloket, Prevent Agri and farmers operating agricultural or horticultural sites with barns, machinery rooms, storage spaces and other infrastructure.

Background

Prevent Agri and VILT have long described safety on farms as a structural issue in Flanders, with practical risks linked to machinery, storage, electrical installations and the daily pressure of farm work. VILT reported in 2016 that the sector lacked complete accident statistics because registration duties mainly cover employees, not all family workers or business operators.

OIS Intelligence

Impact

Regional — The impact is local and provincial. Farmers in Oost-Vlaanderen are the immediate target group, while municipalities that work with the provincial Landbouwloket can use the initiative as part of wider farm-support services.

Opposing perspectives

  1. Province of East Flanders and Prevent Agri

    The public-safety case is preventive: tailored advice and practical farm audits help farmers identify fire risks before an incident destroys buildings, machinery or livestock. This view treats fire safety as part of ordinary farm resilience rather than only an emergency-service issue.

  2. Farmers and horticultural operators facing cost pressure

    The practical constraint is time and money. VILT has previously reported that safety measures can be hard to prioritise because the avoided accident does not appear in farm accounts. For small farms, advice is useful only if recommended measures are realistic and financially manageable.

Sources & evidence