JERUSALEM – More than 60,000 people from the northern city of Haifa were evacuated from their homes Thursday, as firefighters battled a series of massive blazes that have gripped the country over the past three days.
Five countries, including Russia and Turkey, sent fire fighting planes to assist Israel in tackling the fires, which officials said might have been started intentionally — possibly for nationalist motives. Israel’s internal security agencies are looking into the causes of the fires, which started on Monday night and have broken out in several places around the country since.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Haifa on Thursday evening to meet with fire and police chiefs. He said that if the fires were started by arsonists, those responsible “will be punished gravely.”
Israeli officials said that some 10 firefighting planes from Greece, Italy, Croatia and Cyprus, as well as Turkey and Russia, had either arrived in Israel or were on their way to help put out the blazes that have showed no signs of abating.
Netanyahu spoke Thursday morning with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who agreed to send two massive firefighting planes that could drop water on the blazes. Local media reported that Israel was planning to bring the supertanker firefighting plane from the U.S. to gain control of the situation but it will only arrive in 24 hours.
Weather experts said the fires, which began in bush areas, had spread widely because of gusty winds following the dry summer months.
In Haifa, the fires, which by Thursday evening had not been brought under control, caused authorities to evacuate residents in at least ten neighborhoods. And while there were no reports of fatalities, damage was said to be widespread and a few hundred people were treated for smoke inhalation. Several large buildings were engulfed by the fires.
In addition to calling for help from abroad and directing all its firefighting forces to Haifa, the Israeli military deployed two search and rescue battalions to the area, and reservists from the Homefront Command were brought in to assist in evacuating civilians.
Some eye witnesses said the city, Israel’s third-largest, resembled a “war zone.”
The fire in Haifa took residents back to a deadly brush fire in 2010 in which 60 prison guards were burned alive on a bus as they attempted to reach and evacuate a local prison. Israel’s prison services said this time, too, it would empty two prisons in the area.
Yael Hamer, a resident of Haifa who was evacuated from her home Thursday, told journalists that the situation now was worse than the fire six years ago because then the fire was contained to the forests next to Haifa.
“Now it is residential areas where there are many private homes. It is near schools, gas stations, and there are a lot of cars that are stuck in traffic jams as people try to leave Haifa,” Hamer said.
The first fire broke out Monday night near Neve Shalom, a small community halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, where Jews and Arabs live together. Just as that fire was brought under control, another erupted in Zichron Yaakov, a town just south of Haifa. There, dozens of residents were forced from their homes, and several houses were completely destroyed by the fire.
On Wednesday, a fire also broke out in the community of Nataf in the Jerusalem Hills, causing damage to property. Israeli police said they had detained four Palestinians believed to have started the fire, though it was not clear if it was on purpose or by negligence.
Throughout the night Wednesday, firefighters battled blazes in other areas, too. In one place, near the city of Modi’in, police were forced to close down the main highway to Jerusalem. Residents also were evacuated.
Featured Image: Associated Press
(c) 2016, The Washington Post ยท Ruth Eglash
