What warnings there were, how much surface was burned and what countries will help Israel

At 10 in the morning yesterday (Wednesday), a fire broke out in the hills of Jerusalem. Shortly before 2 in the afternoon, Highway 1 was blocked. Many hours have passed since then, and more than 100 fire extinguishing teams continue to fight against fire in a series of critical points, in a battle against one of the largest fires in the history of the country. What did the fire start? What notices have occurred in recent days and which countries have agreed to help?

The Shin Bet is involved in the investigation of the huge fires that are still sweeping in the hills of Jerusalem, but security officials estimated that it is still too early to say if the background is a fire caused. The commander of the Fire Department of the Jerusalem District, Shmulik Friedman, said previously that “we have no idea what the fire caused, so far we do not know what the source is.”

A suspect has already been arrested, a MMMTuba resident, in this Jerusalem, but that was after a fire attempt caused in an open field in the south of the city, and not after one of the fires that started the fire. Despite this, Yair Netanyahu, the son of the prime minister, has already raised a incendiary conspiracy theory that the fires exploded as a result of a caused fire, which originated in the political arch of the left.

Five days ago, the weather service warned that the day of the fallen would be particularly hot. “It is expected dryness, mist and risk of propagation of fire in open areas,” they announced. On Tuesday morning, they repeated the warning and explicitly wrote: “The day of the fallen will be a danger of propagation of fire and fires.”

But unlike Egypt, where classes were canceled, until yesterday afternoon no event was canceled, and only then, after the outbreak of large fires and with strong winds as a backdrop, the torch ceremony was canceled, followed by almost all the events of the Independence Day planned for the night.

Despite the initial forecasts that were already known by the Fire Brigade, the Police and the FDI, the Fire Brigade did not ask the Air Force to prepare for large fires. On Tuesday night, the Air Force independently decided to shorten the alert for the Super-Hercules plane (Shimshon) of a regular fire extinction alert, 12 hours, 6 hours. Despite this, when the IDF offered help to firefighters yesterday afternoon, it was reported that it would be better for the super Hercules to remain operating at night because it is one of the only ones who can take measures to extinguish fire during the hours of darkness.

Yesterday at 15, firefighters regretted and asked the Air Force to activate the Shimshon, but the assembly of the fire extinguishing kit in the multipurpose aircraft also includes the mixture of materials with a short expiration date, so it makes no sense to prepare and save the kit in advance. Security officials said that the start, preparation and operation of the plane, as well as the cost of taking out the fire extinguishing with him, is the responsibility of the Fire Department.

In addition to these two Super Hercules aircraft and another plane that will help in extinction, Israel has the ELAD squad: 14 fire extinguish aircraft AIR TRACTOR AT-802F, four Kahal helicopters, an Airbus H-125 Echorail helicopter and two Airbus H-145 helicopters. last night they did not act at all due to the strong winds that blew in the area.

In addition to them, there are another 10 fire extinction planes belonging to private companies “Yam Nir” and “Telem”, but these were not activated due to power struggles and internal policy. Only from this morning some of them can be used in the fight against fire.

Several European countries have already announced the aid delivery, and others are expected to join them. Croatia sends a Candyair Cl-415 plane from the Croatian Air Force to Israel with two crews, Romania, Italy and Spain will send two airplanes, France will help with a plane and Ukraine will also send air support.

Israel has also called on Cyprus and Bulgaria to help him. The Palestinian authority has also offered help, but Israel has not yet responded to this request. In any case, fire extinguishing aircraft will not start operating before the morning.

From the outbreak of the fire, thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes in the Council of Mateh Yehuda, in the Hills of Jerusalem, in the communities of Mesilat Zion, Beit Meir, Mevo Horon, Shoresh, Yad Hashmona, Neve Ilan and Coref. Latrun sites were also evacuated. Eshtaol, Neve Shalom and Nachshon were also evacuated, where residents were given permission to return to their homes.

An initial estimate made by the JNF last night shows that from the morning until now, 19,600 forest dunams (about 1,960 hectares) have burned. Following the unusual fire wave, the JNF prohibited access to a large number of forests and parks in the following days.

At the same time, the Parks and Nature Authority reported that, according to estimates, some 3,000 DUNAMS (300 hectares) were burned in the Kfira Natural Reserve, in the Hills of Jerusalem. Yoav Greenberg, director of the Shephelah region and mountain of the authority, explained: “In such a fire, many natural values, plants, trees and animals, including the birds that nest, are damaged. Unfortunately, many animals were injured.”