Printer Friendly

Email to A Friend

Friday September 13, 1996

Fire ruins Jerusalem-area land as residents question response

DAVID LANDAU
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

JERUSALEM -- Fourteen months after a forest fire destroyed more than 3,200 acres of woodland in the forested hills near Jerusalem, another blaze has claimed an additional 500 acres of forest and several buildings in Kibbutz Kiryat Anavim and Moshav Beit Nekofa.

Now, kibbutz residents and others living in the affected area outside Jerusalem are leading a vociferous outcry against what they describe as the negligence, apathy and inefficiency of firefighters in response to the blaze.

They also claimed that the report and recommendations of a blue-ribbon inquiry committee set up to study the disastrous July 1995 fire have been largely ignored.

According to a preliminary investigation, the fire on Friday of last week began in the Arab village of Abu Gosh, when wind carried the flames from burning garbage.

As the fire spread, black smoke engulfed the area and reached the main Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway.

Thirteen people required medical attention for smoke inhalation, but there were no serious injuries.

Interior Minister Eli Suissa ordered a new inquiry -- both into the weekend blaze and into the apparent failure of the authorities to learn the lessons of last year's fire.

But an internal review by the Knesset's Fire and Rescue Commission on Sunday cleared firefighters of any incompetency in battling the blaze.

President Ezer Weizman, in a grim-faced visit to the scene Sunday, urged the air force to purchase special firefighting planes and hold them in readiness for such events.

A former air force commander, Weizman said the Israel Air Force's Sikorsky helicopters, which lug large tubs of water from nearby reservoirs and dump them over a blaze, are by no means the most advanced airborne firefighting technique.

But most of the residents' criticism was directed at the ground-based fire services, headquartered at Beit Shemesh, at the foot of the Jerusalem hills.

Kiryat Anavim residents claimed it took hours for the firefighters to appreciate the strength of the spreading blaze and to call up fire engines from Jerusalem and elsewhere.

"They could have stopped it when it was still small," kibbutz member Chava Abrahams said, surveying the charred wreckage of her mother's home.

Meir Wiesel, chairman of the Mateh Yehuda regional council, charged that "none of the recommendations made after last year's fire was carried out in practice."

These recommendations included beefing up firefighting services in both material and manpower, cutting wider safety swathes through forest tracts, and maintaining better watch for fires, especially during hot weather.

The village hardest hit in last year's fire was nearby Shoresh. Its inhabitants offered shelter and comfort to those forced out of their homes in Kiryat Anavim.

Did you find this article interesting? Subscribe to our FREE newsletter and you'll be notified each week when "J." goes online. We'll tell you about the most important stories of the week and give you a link to each one.

This page contains a BETA version of Amazon contextual links. They are marked by the dashed underline.  Your purchases support our site. At times they point to items which are not related to the actual link. Please alert us by email if you discover objectionable links.