Death toll rises to 41 as brush fire rages on in northern Israel

[News_Editor]

Death toll rises to 41 as brush fire rages on in northern Israel

2010-12-03 20:54:55 GMT+7 (ICT)

HAIFA, ISRAEL (BNO NEWS) -- The death toll from Israel's worst ever brush fire rose to 41 on Friday, authorities said, as firefighters from Britain, Greece, and Cyprus joined in to fight the flames.

The fire broke out on Thursday afternoon across the Carmel mountains and most of the casualties were from a bus evacuating prison guards near Haifa in northern Israel. In addition, dozens more were injured including police officers and firefighters.

The bus was en route to Damon prison in order to assist in the evacuation of about 600 prisoners when the vehicle flipped over and became engulfed in flames from the forest fire.

Most of the deceased burned to death and all of them were prison wardens. "The bus had no chance. They tried to escape but were burned alive. It was a horrific scene," said a spokesman for the local fire department. "The fire was very far from the road on which the bus was traveling when it first set off towards the prison, but spread far faster than expected."

The flames has already engulfed thousands of acres of the Carmel forest between the Haifa University and Ussafiya. The university had to be evacuated to avoid further fatalities. Police forces described the situation as a major disaster and added that they do not believe the fire will be controlled in the coming days.

The fire is continuing to spread and is endangering many areas and police forces urged citizens to stay clear of the area, while more than 15,000 people have already been evacuated. The affected region has heavy brush that burns easily and is spreading due to the strong winds.

On Friday morning, five planes from Greece carrying staff and equipment, a plane and helicopter from Cyprus, and a Bulgarian plane carrying approximately 100 fire fighters landed at the Ramat David Air Force Base. The Bulgarian firefighters later deployed at an IDF Home Front Command base, from which they will leave for their designated missions led by Israeli firefighters.

A substantial number of IDF forces is operating in the area, including infantry soldiers, navy sailors, search and rescue teams, cranes, vehicles, bulldozers, IDF fire trucks, and other equipment. Israeli Air Force aircraft assist in illuminating the area in order to assist the teams extinguishing the blaze, paramedics and doctors are treating those who were injured and teams of the IDF Personnel Directorate and Medical Corps are helping identify those who died in the fire.

"We are in a very harsh event," said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Security Cabinet Meeting regarding the fire. "We have over 40 dead. People are missing; people are injured. Many of these people perished in admirable courage and sacrificed themselves in order to save others," he said.

Netanyahu said the international community was quick to respond to offer assistance. "We have also received aid and very generous offers of assistance from Egypt, Azerbaijan, Spain, Croatia, France and Jordan," he said. "I think that this symbolizes the unprecedented response to my appeal, to our appeal, for international assistance. This is important to the State of Israel in every respect, especially that of putting out the fires."

Earlier on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton offered the U.S. government's condolences to the families of those who died in the fire. "The people of the United States know all too well the devastation caused by wildfires, and we are fully committed to assisting Israel during this tragedy," Clinton said.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2010-12-03

[bina]

just an update: there were rumours tah two thai workers were killed in the fire; to the best of my knowlege from my son, who is in one of the volunteer civilian help centers, one thai worker was hospitalized for smoke inhalation...

one 16 yr old volunteer fire fighter died

if it werent for the help especially from the two russian fire fighting planes, the fire would be much worse then it even is.

kibbutz ein hod artist colony- partially burnt down.

ain hood (the arab village near the colony) burnt

kibbutz beit oren, 30 buildings burnt down, major damage

usifiah (the druze city), starting evacuation proceedures since they dont have a fire fightng system and the city roads are impassable to large vehicles and hills/one width wide streets

the chai bar : the movable animals moved to petting zoos and zoos; the carmel deer and other large hooved mammals that were in closed areas , not affected. the open area, the animals have a secluded area that they are sheltered in... (daughter working in zoo called in to say...)

minefields near minara are in the fire area now and there is danger of them exploding

17000 people so far have been evacuated. 40000 dunam burnt. a 4.5 million trees burnt down.

the two suspects that were arrested now released. apparently the fire started as an accidental fire from someone''s backyard or burning trash. other fires in the north apparently arson. the wind at somepoint was about 60 k/hour thru the valley between the mountains. the carmel is called little switzerland because of its dense trees. it will take about 30 years for the forest to reach full scale again...

here at tzuba (jerusalem area) we can smell smoke and there is now a forest fire in our area, apparently arson.

this is as of 14:00 today my time.

either way, without foreign fire fighting aide the fire would be even worse by now.. it is so dry and hot here, with no rain in sight and already december, this will be the first of many fires...

[Scott]

Thanks for the update Bina. If you get more information, please let us know.

[bina]

Thanks for the update Bina. If you get more information, please let us know.

nothing too new; just that now there is time to start with the politics between the druze city usifia and the surrounding counties (discrimination in monetary terms, why didnt usifia have a fire fighting unit/ and why is everyone blaming the arabs (all fingers point to the start of teh fire in usifiya-- and just now, announced that two kids were playing with fire near an illegal trash dump that caught of fire, they watched it for a while and then got nervous and ran, and didnt bother to put it out or call for help...

the rest of the fires around the country are arson, people taking advantage of the fact that 99% if the fire fighting units and police force are busy up north...

lawsuits are starting already (employers not paying for missing days of work for people that are left without a place to stay or are unable to get to work in the next few days, or are still unable to return to their houses; insurance fights (car, house); air quality absolutely horrific; the fact that haifa has a huge hazardous chemical industries and teh fire could ahve caused a world wide environmental problem not to mention civilian deaths from poison; that all these years various nature organizations have been warning about the lack of fire fighting equiptment (mostly tiny chim-nir chemical company sprayer planes and small amounts of chemical fire retardant );

the size of the burned area is about the size of korat maybe? for us, a small country, that is a huge amount of green oxygen producing forest, fortunately, populated but not too populated. one of the funnier parts of teh rescue effort was the need to rescue the hundreds of goats that are out in pasture , belonging to the people in usifiah, that is their livihood and their way of life. fortunatley goats have brains and go away from fire and also try to get back to their home so easy to get them. sheep ont he other hand, especially the baladi sheep, dont herd well/

the amount of water used was amazing. several of the planes use mediterranean sea water but the russian planes had to use water apparantely from various sources , which of course since we are in a serious drought, we dont have. they used 42 liters of water per second!!! ...

much of the fire rescue work was made more difficult because of the israeli propensity to not listen to instructions: people came to see the fire, people returned to their houses to protect or take out possessions, and the fire kept coming back so rescue workers had to risk their lives to save stupid civilians.

we've had 48 hours of contant updates, but now its wearing off, just when the most difficult time starts: those w/o homes, the barren and bare carmel hills, rain finally coming tomorrow but now of course there is nothing to hold the soil on the mountains, and no shelter ofr the wildlife that survived... an ecological tragedy btw, the trees on the carmel are m ostly needle type trees with pine cones that burst in the heat , acting like hand grenades, shooting fire and pine oil meters away to keep the fire going.

the whole thing is so ironic since we are in the midst of 'the festival of lights' chanuka where playing with fire is part and parcel with the holiday , to the point that instructions are everywhere for parents to allow their children to play with fire in a controlled way so that they wont go somewhere else and play dangerously.... making candles, shaping wax, making oil based roman style candle holders...

i guess none of us will ever forget this chanuka for sure...

[geriatrickid]

This is particularly horrible since the area burning is vital to the region's environmental sustainability. The Mount Carmel area aside from being an important UNESCO recognized bireserve contributes to the regional water table management. Totally heartbreaking. The fauna, and the plant life are vital not just to Israel but to those countries that have migratory birds. it’s the only bioreserve in the eastern Mediterranean to contain a woodland pine forest of Aleppo pine. This is a tragedy that could very well devastate the local Druize population.

I hope this fire can be controlled and justt as Australia and California rose to the occassion after their devastating wildfires, one hopes that the Israelis will dig deep in their hearts for the strength to respond. There may also be a blessing in disguise as the fire highlights the limited fire service capability of Israel, and may perhaps force the government to put the funding into the fire services. However, that's a different story.