8:29PM EST: The Super Tanker fire-fighting plane from the US landed at Ben Gurion airport overnight on Saturday and was set to join the other aircraft in operations in the North beginning early Sunday morning. Unlike other fire-fighting aircraft sent to help fight the Carmel fire, it can operate at night. It can drop 21,000 gallons (80,000 liters) of water in a single run, which is 16 times more than the capacity of the aircraft now at the scene.
/>6:23PM EST: A senior Israel Air Force officer said Saturday night that the fire had reached its lowest level since breaking out on Thursday. “A new challenge is expected in the morning, with southeastern winds which may lead the blaze to new directions,” he said. “The fire may be in control by the end of the day.”
6:12PM EST: Two US Hercules planes carrying 18 tons of firefighting material have landed at Ben Gurion International Airport. US ambassador to Israel James Cunningham who was present when they arrived promised this assistance was just the beginning, saying further aid would arrive Monday including a tactical team. The world’s largest firefighting plane is expected to arrive during the night, after Israel agreed to hire it from a private US company. The 28 firefighting planes and 3 helicopters sent by governments around the world will take part in firefighting efforts Monday.
6:05PM EST: The inferno that has been raging in northern Israel since Thursday, the worst in the country’s history, will hopefully be brought under control if not completely doused by the end of Sunday, the Israel Police and IDF predicted on Saturday night.
The expectation is that the blaze, which has ravaged 50,000 dunams (12,500 acres) in and around the Carmel Mountain Range and killed 41 Israelis, and which was still erupting in new flash-points throughout Saturday and into Saturday night, will be largely defeated with the arrival of the last of 33 aircraft dispatched to the emergency effort by countries from around the world.
Crucially, on Sunday morning, a privately owned US Boeing 747 – the Evergreen Supertanker, the largest fire-fighting aircraft in the world – will land in Ben-Gurion International Airport and make its first flight over the fire at around 6 a.m., a senior IAF officer said. The plane can carry 80 tons of water and fire retardant.
“Our assessment is that we will be able to put out the worst of the fire by Sunday afternoon with 33 planes that will be here from around the world,” the officer said, although emergency personnel have cautioned that new fires may continue to emerge over the coming few days.
As the sun set on Saturday evening over the scarred and still burning Carmel mountains, police and firefighters took cautious satisfaction in significant progress that had been made after some 60 hours of relentless battle against the monstrous inferno.
But with fire-fighting planes unable to fly at night, new blazes continued to erupt into the night. Forces took up defensive positions around Haifa, Usfiya and other communities, while hoping that the nocturnal winds would not undo all of their hard work.
Several key developments took place over the weekend. All 41 casualties of the fire were identified by forensic officers at the L. Greenberg Institute for Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir, and a series of funerals were held. More will take place on Sunday.
The majority of the dead were Israel Prisons Service staff who were burned alive in their bus near Beit Oren on Thursday.
The dead also included two policemen who had tried to assist the bus passengers, named as Ch.-Supt. Yitzhak Melina, 46, and the Northern District’s Operations Branch manager Dep.-Cmdr. Lior Boker, 57. He was posthumously promoted to Asst.- Cmdr by Police Insp.-Gen. David Cohen.
The body of Elad Riven, 16, of Haifa, who was a volunteer in the Fire Service and had rushed to assist at the scene of the tragedy, was also identified. Haifa police chief Dep.- Cmdr. Ahuva Tomer remained in critical condition at the Rambam Medical Center.
Police arrested two brothers from Usfiya, aged 14 and 16, suspected of having started the blaze by failing to douse a bonfire around which they had been playing and smoking on Thursday morning. The pair negligence rather than deliberate arson. Arson is suspected at several other points where fires have erupted since the initial blaze took hold.
By Saturday night, more than 17,000 people had been evacuated from 15 communities, and five million trees had been destroyed, police said.
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
