Hundreds of people gathered at the road leading to Kibbutz Beit Oren, in the heart of Carmel mountain range, for a memorial ceremony honoring the 44 people who died in last year’s wildfire.

During the ceremony a monument was inaugurated near a curve in the road where a bus carrying Prison Service cadets caught fire.

The blaze in the Carmel region was the deadliest in Israel’s history and claimed the lives of 37 Prison Service cadets, two firefighters, one volunteer, a civilian and three police officers.

The names of the victims were inscribed on a cement wall erected near the monument.

The life partner of one of the victims – Haifa Police Commander Ahuva Tomer- attended the ceremony, but some relatives of the Prison Service cadets who perished shunned the ceremony because, according to them, no one claimed responsibility for the deadly blaze.

(Source: Ynet)