2010 Mount Carmel forest fire

The Fire Triggered a wave of Arson Attacks "... many Arabs  called on Israel's enemies, particularly Iran, Hamas and Hezbullah, to use the opportunity presented by the disaster  to wipe Israel off the face of earth."   From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The 2010 Mount Carmel forest fire was a deadly forest fire that started on Mount Carmel in northern Israel,  just south of Haifa. The fire began at about 11:00 local time on 2 December 2010, and spread quickly,  consuming much of the Mediterranean forest covering the region. The fire claimed at least 42 lives,  making it the deadliest in Israeli history. The dead were mostly Israel Prison Service officer cadets,[2]  as well as three senior police officers, among them the chief of the Haifa District.[3] More than  17,000  the fire was caused by the burning of an illegal garbage dump and spread due to the dry  conditions  and strong  winds. Haifa's Mayor Yona Yahav stated that the problem was known and it was "just a matter of  time until a  calamity occurred".[2] Israel Police suggested that the fire was caused due to a bonfire that was lit by local residents and not  extinguished properly and in time.[11] However, they stressed that the investigation of the incident  is in  its  early phases and cautioned against drawing premature conclusions.[6] On 4 December, police  arrested two  adolescent brothers from the Druze town of Isfiya on suspicion of having caused the fire through  negligence.  Their family denies the accusation.[12] On 5 December, the Haifa Magistrate Court extended the brothers'  remand for three days,[6] and on 6 December the court released them from custody under restrictive conditions.  There were unconfirmed reports of the teens having hurled burning waste products during a picnic.  The same day, police announced that they had arrested two additional youths from Isfiya the previous night,  and that more arrests could be expected soon.[13] In the evening of 6 December, police announced that a 14 year-old resident of Usfiya admitted to inadvertently  starting the fire. The teen told investigators that after smoking a nargila, he threw a lit coal into an open area and  was so shocked by the result that he returned to school without telling anyone what he had done.[14] Druze Member of Knesset Ayoob Kara, a resident of Isfiya near where the fire broke out, had said on the evening  of 2 December that he had received information that the fire was a terror act. MKs Ya'akov Katz and  Michael Ben-Ari also cited the possibility that the fire was an act of terrorism and called for an investigation.[15][edit] people were evacuated, including several villages in the vicinity of the fire, and there was considerable  property and environmental damage.[4] The investigation indicates that the fire was caused by human activity near Isfiya, and on 6 December  a 14-year-old resident of the town told police that he had inadvertently started the fire with a nargila coal.[5] The fire triggered a wave of arson attacks throughout Israel and the West Bank.  These fires, which  initially created confusion regarding the source of the Carmel blaze, were all extinguished  within a few  hours of being lit.[6][7] The motivation for the attacks was not immediately clear,  but The Jerusalem Post  stated in an editorial that they were carried out for political reasons by Arab Israeli terrorists,  who were  intensifying a campaign which had involved an average of two arson attempts per day for the previous  Government officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman,  called on other countries to help assist in firefighting efforts, and the Israel Defense Forces mobilized troops  for the same purpose.[2][9] The fire was defeated on 5 December after raging for four days.[10] Israel had been experiencing an unusually warm autumn and dry conditions.  Fatalities The fire has claimed at least 42 lives. Thirty-six were prison service officers course cadets and their commanding  officers, who were on the way to Damun jail to evacuate its prisoners from the path of the flames. Three senior  police officers also perished, as well as a firefighter and 16-year-old volunteer firefighter. On December 4, it was  announced that all of the victims had been identified.[16] On December 6, Nitzav Mishne (Deputy Commander)  Ahuva Tomer died in the hospital from the severe burns she sustained on December 2.[17] Prison service bus incident After the fire started on December 2, the Damun Prison in the area of the fire called for r einforcements in order  to evacuate prisoners. A bus carrying Israel Prison Service cadets came to assist, but  caught fire on its way.[2]  Several Police officers and a number of firefighters who were behind the bus were also  injured and some were killed, [4] including Nitzav Mishne (Deputy Commander) Ahuva Tomer, commander of the Haifa  District police and the  first woman to hold such a major command, who later died of her injuries.[3]  The incident is the country's deadliest  single peacetime event involving security forces.[18] An initial investigation showed that a tree fell down on the road, trapping the bus in a fireball.[19]  According to  Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovich, after the vehicle caught fire, the driver was injured  and lost control.[4]  While performing a U-turn on the narrow road the bus caught fire and the cadets tried to escape  the burning vehicle.  The back door would not open due to the extreme heat but was eventually  broken through, enabling some cadets to flee the burning bus; however, those who fled  encountered the  intense blaze outside. An officer and two cadets were able to escape and were picked up by a  passing motorist,  who then drove through the fire to safety.[20][21] The victims included the bus driver and thirty-six  IPS officers and  cadets, both men and women, most of them in their 20s and 30s, some of them Druze. edit]Environmental and property damage Smoke over HaBonim The fire has caused widespread damage to property, as well as ecological  damage. It initially spread very quickly because of the wind, and cut off power  to houses in the vicinity.[2] At least 40,000 dunams (4,000 hectares; 9,900  acres) of forest were destroyed,[18] and damage was caused to the Carmel  Hai-Bar Nature Reserve.[26] Omri Bone, the Northern Region Director of the  Jewish National Fund, estimated that 1.5 million trees burnt in the fire.[27]  However, another 4 million trees have reportedly burned since then.[28]  According to officials, nearly half of the 150,000 dunams (15,000 ha;  37,000 acres) of the Carmel Forest reserve have been destroyed in the fire.  Officials say it could take dozens of years to rehabilitate the area.[29] Over 17,000 people were evacuated on December 2 as a result of the fire, including 6,500 from Tirat Carmel and  3,000 from Haifa.[4] Villages evacuated include Kibbutz Beit Oren, Ein Hod and Nir Etzion, which were severely  impacted by the fire.[19] The University of Haifa was also evacuated,[26] as well as two prisons (Carmel/Prison Six  and Damun) and the Tirat Carmel Mental Hospital. Other institutions included the Carmel Forest Hotel and the  Carmel Farm.[4][19] The casualty information center opened for the first time since the 2006 Lebanon War.[4] [edit]Related arson attacks In the days following the outbreak of the blaze, other fires erupted sporadically far from the main  site, causing police  to raise its alert level nationwide. Investigators concluded that arsonists were attempting to  "hitch a ride" on the  Carmel fire. Police Insp.-Gen. David Cohen stated at a press conference on 3 December that  "there have been a  number of arson attacks in the northern district".[6]Police sources estimated that arsonists  were attempting to  distract forces dealing with the Carmel fire by producing additional emergency events. An editorial in the Jerusalem Post called these arson cases "homegrown terrorism".[8] December 3 A fire broke out in the Tzur Shalom industrial zone in Kiryat Bialik, forcing the evacuation of a  nearby factory.  Firefighters  extinguished the blaze within several hours. Police reported finding a bicycle and a bag  containing a  wig near the area, increasing suspicions that arson was involved.[6] The same day, two men in their 30s from the Druze town of Daliyat al-Karmel were  apprehended by police and  were suspected of hurling Molotov cocktails in a forest on a  Carmel mountain hilltop, but were released once it  was established that they had no connection  to the original fire, and police said that no wrongdoing was established  with certainty.[7][33] A small fire that erupted in Haifa's Nave Yosef neighborhood in the afternoon was extinguished by  midnight.[6] December 4 A fire erupted near the northern Bedouin village of Basmat Tab'un, causing no reported injuries  or damage. Police  suspected arson.[34] A brush fire that broke out in the Jerusalem Forest around 1 pm burned 2.5 dunams of forest and  open land.  Firefighters and police extinguished the blaze within several hours. After hikers nearby reported  two suspects  fleeing from the area where the fire started, police were treating the incident as arson and opened  an investigation.[6] At night, an Israeli Arab and a Palestinian were arrested after allegedly trying to start a fire near  Jerusalem.  The two tried to escape by car and were apprehended after a short chase.[35] Various fires broke out in open areas and woodland areas in the West Bank during the day,  and were extinguished  by Israeli and Palestinian Authority firefighters. One of these was a fire that broke out in a  woodland area near Neve Tzuf. The firefighting services said that the blazes were probably  acts of arson.[36] Additional suspicious fires erupted in Kiryat Tiv'on, in the vicinity of Adi, at Route 70 by  Bat Shelomo, at Beit Rimon  Junction in the vicinity of Nazareth, and near Mashhad.[6] [edit]Extinguishing the fire  Other than the firefighters' and police efforts, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) sent two battalions  to assist with the extinguishing of the fire and various evacuations.[2] It also sent heavy ground equipment from nearby bases,  including firetrucks, water tanks, cranes, D9 bulldozers and other equipment. The IDF used an unmanned aerial vehicle   for reconnaissance and  intelligence  collection.  being used in such a situation.[37]Use of other aircraft was  prohibited because of a decade-old decision that prohibits  military aircraft from  Russian Ilyushin Il-76 during fire fighting operations near Nir-Etzion, December 4, 2010 Israel requested help from various countries, including the United States.[38] Turkey and Greece offered to send  Hellenic Air Force Bombardier 415sfighting flames at Ein Hod on December 4, 2010 RAF 84 Squadron Bell Griffin HAR2dips its bucket off the coast of Atlitduring firefighting efforts on December 3, 2010assistance to fight the fire. Two Turkish firefighter aircraft started to extinguish fire in the early hours of  December 3.[39] The Dutch sent four fire extinguisher-aircrafts, which could do their job as early as Monday,   the 6th of December,[40] since Benyamin Netanyahu asked the Netherlands, as well as Belgium, Germany,  Finland, Norway, and Russiaspecifically for help. Cyprus[41] dispatched a helicopter and a plane to assist in  the fire-fighting effort. Russia has sent three special firefighting planes that can hold up to forty tons of water.[42]  Countries that offered help include Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Croatia,[43]  Cyprus, France,[44] Jordan, Romania, Spain[26][45] with four seaplanes  and the United Kingdom who sent two Royal Air Force helicopters.[46]  Italy and Egypt may possibly also send firefighting planes.[45][47]  Netanyahu said he had a "warm" discussion with Palestinian Authority  President Mahmoud Abbas, who offered any assistance he could to  help Israel with the fire, even though the U.S. is trying to restart peace talks  between the Israelis and Palestinians that broke down in September over  the issue of construction West Bank settlements.[48] The Palestinian  Authority sent several fire trucks to help extinguish fires near the  Israeli-Arab towns of Tayibe and Barta'a;[49] on Sunday, December 5, 21  Palestinian firefighters joined the efforts in the Carmel Forest area itself.[50] On Dec. 4th Israeli government decided to hire Evergreen's Boeing 747 Supertanker[51] to help extinguish the  flames.The plane landed at 01;00 in international airport Ben Gurion. After experiencing minor technical problems  the plane took off and at about 11:00 it released its first cargo of water. Later in the day it made a second sortie,  dropping fire retardant. The Turkish assistance was considered surprising, due to the strain on the Turkish-Israeli relationship since the Turkish-Gaza flotilla raid.[40] At a Security Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu thanked Erdoğan (and others) for their offer  to help, saying he "hopes this will be the beginning of better relations between our two countries".[48][edit] Reactions The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, declared a national day of mourning,[52] while events celebrating  of Hanukkah were canceled in Haifa.[4] The President of the United States, Barack Obama, offered his condolences: "Our thoughts and prayers are with  everybody in Israel who is affected by this tragedy and the family and loved ones of those in harm's way."[53] Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs of the United Kingdom, William Hague, posted a message  on Twitter saying "[I offer] condolences to the families of those killed in forest fires in Israel."[54][edit] Reactions from the Arab world According to Israeli news website Ynetnews, "Many Arab media outlets have been taking advantage of Israel's fire  disaster to disparage the Jewish state and rejoice over its misfortune."[55] Israeli-Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh  assessed in The Jerusalem Post, based on a survey of comments from readers on Arabic sites, that many Arabs  called on Israel's enemies, particularly Iran, Hamasand Hezbullah, to use the opportunity presented by the disaster  to wipe Israel off the face of earth. Other Arabs condemned Egypt and Jordan for agreeing to help put out the  conflagration.[56] 2010 Mount Carmel forest fire The fire in its early stages (looking west) Location Mount Carmel, Israel Date December 2, 2010 – December 5, 2010[1] Burned area Over 40,000 dunams (4,000 ha; 9,900 acres) Fatalities 42 Injuries Dozens Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh told Reuters: "These are plagues from God. Allah is punishing [the Israelis]  from a place they did not expect."[57] Ynetnews said that senior Palestinian Authority security official Ahmed Rizek  Abu Rabia[who?] said: "This is a human catastrophe. The Palestinian side is offering all the help it can through  official channels." The website also quoted a Palestinian official identified with Islamic Jihad as criticising those  "whose hearts fill with compassion for the Zionist disaster. There is no need to tell you how delighted we are that  more than 40 cadets who tortured prisoners were killed in this fire. We never met with your compassion when Israel  attacked us. Let the fire consume this spider state.[49] A World Within: Jewish Life As Reflected in Muslim Court Documents from the Sijill of Jerusalem (XVIth Century) Lebanese, Hezbollah-linked television station Al-Manar said that the fire signaled Israeli vulnerability to war and  mass terrorism: "The great Carmel fire has embarrassed Israel's firefighting capabilities and proved its almost  complete incompetence. The enormous blaze that broke out on the Carmel proved that Israel is not prepared for war  or a mass terrorist strike that would cause many casualties in the home front."[58][non-primary source needed] Sexology: Sexual Biology, Behavior and Therapy (International Congress Series, 566) Grow your own vegetables  -  patio, indoors, yard   Survival/Victory Garden: http://www.food4wealth.com/?hop=cielos   Please buy this Easy Program from Roy and Dee