So now we know: a small fire was spotted by a pilot giving a flying lesson and he reported it immediately, but it took more than two hours for fire-fighting aircraft to arrive.
Haaretz reports:
“’I flew with a student. I saw smoke over the Carmel hills,’ the pilot said. ‘I flew over the fire, which at that point was a tiny blaze just outside Isfiya. It was very easy to get to it with a fire truck. I reported the fire to the air-traffic-control tower at Haifa Airport.’ The pilot said he had noticed the fire at 11:14 A.M, when it still could have been put out quickly. He later learned that the air traffic controllers first noticed fire-fighting aircraft in the region at 1:45 P.M.”
Already a criminal investigation is under way as to how the fire started.
But to my mind, it is equally criminal to have had first hand evidence of the shortcomings of Israel’s fire service in the State Comptroller’s probe into how the service operated during the 2006 Lebanon War and yet done nothing to improve matters.
"The fire-fighting facilities in Israel lack a central command and control system," the comptroller stated in his report. Another problem was "a severe shortage of water filling sites for the vehicles in the forested area.” Only 2 of 40 planned sites were set up, due to budgetary difficulties.
Firemen have warned that the system is way below par and in the past year they went on strike to draw attention to the fact that they cannot cope. International standards dictate that there should be one fireman for every 1,000 citizens; in Israel the ratio is nearly one in 10,000.
I’m depressed today but even worse, I feel so angry. This morning a friend asked me why I take everything that happens in Israel so much to heart. “Other countries are just as bad,” he said. That may or may not be true, but frankly other countries' shortcomings don’t interest me. Those of us who have the privilege of living in Israel have a great responsibility to take care of our country and all its citizens. Time and again, it seems we are capable of dealing with predictable disasters only after the tragic event, or while we are in the midst of it.
Today’s tragedy is proof that our lawmakers have known that they have been cutting corners for years by devaluing the country’s crucial fire-fighting service. In a drought-stricken country the government thought it acceptable to have insufficient equipment to fight potentially devastating forest fires. In most “other countries” heads would roll in the wake of this calamity, in particular that of the minister who is responsible for the fire service: Eli Yishai.
We have heard from Interior Minister Yishai on all sorts of matters in recent months, and many times he would have done far better to have refrained from opening his mouth. Yet with regard to the still unfolding tragedy, we have yet to hear him utter one word.
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