A day — hours, really — after a 35-plane assault brought a raging forest fire in northern Israel under control, the first winter rains arrived to help dampen down the lingering flames.
Last year by this time, there had been one stretch of four solid days and nights of downpour, which brought the level of the Sea of Galilee (source of one-third of Israel’s water supply) above the critical red-line minimum.
This year was the hottest and driest autumn in 150 years, locals say…
The huge blaze in the Carmel broke out last Thursday, and was declared out-of-control within hours.
The Haifa Deputy Police Commissioner Ahuva Tomer, who was caught in the flames last Thursday and revived only after a long struggle by a team of doctors, has died in the Rambam hospital in Haifa. The hospital’s deputy director, Dr. Yaron Bar-El, told journalists: “We fought for her life non-stop … But in spite of our efforts we were forced to give up”.
Tomer was riding in a car behind a bus bringing prison service trainees to the Carmel region’s Damon prison, which apparently houses women detainees. Almost every one of those trainees on board the bus — some 37 people — died when the fire abruptly turned and split into two, trapping them.
Israel Newswire has reported today that those prison service volunteers on board the bus, and those in the car with Police Deputy Commissioner Tomer, were going to evacuate “Arab security detainees” from the prison.