Negligence cause of Israel wildfire, say police

Sat, 04 Dec 2010

Tel Aviv/Haifa - Negligence was probably behind the wildfire that has destroyed 3,400 hectares of land in northern Israel and killed at least 41 people, a preliminary investigation of the Israeli police concluded Saturday.

"Negligence seems to be the cause of the main fire", Israeli police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld told the German Press Agency, dpa.

However, the investigation was set to continue as efforts to put out the blaze could take another 48 hours, depending on changes in the wind and temperatures.

Israeli fire services were hopeful that with the "impressive" international help that Israel has received the wildfire could be controlled by Saturday night.

"The fire is not yet under control, it might be later on in the evening. In any case we hope it will be before the night because then the works become very problematic", Yoram Levy, spokesman of the Fire services said to dpa.

Levy said that despite the efforts to "extinguish the main fire to the minimum" Saturday, the works might last until Sunday.

Israel received more firefighting aircraft from abroad Saturday morning and have been working together with at least 10 Israeli aircraft since 6 AM (0400GMT).

A Russian plane capable of dumping at least 42 tonnes of water arrived in Israel and was already in the air - together with six other international aircraft from France, Turkey, Greece and Cyprus, Israeli fire services said.

The blaze is still concentrated between the village of Beit Oren and a major road linking Haifa with Tel Aviv to the south, as well as between the village of Usafiya and the village of Nir Etzion.

So far, according to the police, the number of fatalities is 41, while Israeli Radio reported 43 deaths including two police officers and a 16-year-old volunteer.

The dead teenager, identified as Elad Rebin, was trying to rescue prison service cadets whose bus had been trapped in the inferno Thursday night. Some 36 cadets on the bus were burned to death. The other dead were police officers, firemen, and a civilian.

Four Border Guard police officers were lightly hurt by smoke inhalation Saturday morning after being trapped near the northern community of Ein Hod. Four of them remain in hospital.

Officials late Friday said that the fire had destroyed more than 3,400 hectares of land, devoured over 4 million trees, and forced 17,000 people to flee their homes.

Some two days after the fire first began on the drought-stricken, heavily-forested Carmel hill, south-east of the city of Haifa, it is still defying efforts to bring it under control.

During the night the flames spread to the villages of Nir Ezion and Ein Hod, burning houses, and forcing police and firefighters to rescue residents who had not already fled.

However, firefighters managed to prevent the flames from reaching the Haifa suburb of Deniya, which lies on the south-eastern outskirts of the city, even though at one stage it was only one kilometer from the quarter's outlying streets.

The inferno also reached a hotel, and a wildlife reserve.

Spain, Egypt, Jordan, Croatia, Romania, Italy, Azerbaijan, Britain and the US are expected to send also aircraft, fire-retardant chemicals and other equipments. The Palestinian Authority said it had sent fire trucks.

Two other fires near the town of Ma'alot, about 40 kilometers north-east of the Carmel fire, and near the northern village of Basmat Tab'un erupted Saturday. The first was brought under control and in both cases police suspect arson.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/356543,police-3rd-update.html.