- Title: ISRAEL: Family hold funeral for policeman killed in Mount Camel forest fires
- Date: 4th December 2010
- Summary: YAVNE, ISRAEL (DECEMBER 3, 2010) (REUTERS) WIDE OF CEMETERY EMPTY GRAVE READY FOR FUNERAL POLICE ESCORT WALKING INTO CEMETERY POLICE CARRYING COFFIN DRAPED IN ISRAELI FLAG POLICE AT FUNERAL COFFIN BEING LAID ON GRAVE POLICEMAN STANDING BY GRAVE MOTHER CRYING NEXT TO COFFIN RELATIVE CRYING NEXT TO MOTHER BROTHER CRYING NEXT TO COFFIN WIDE OF FUNERAL SERVICE MOU
- Embargoed: 19th December 2010 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Israel
- Country: Israel
- Topics: Disasters / Accidents / Natural catastrophes
- Reuters ID: LVAC7GI9FOJYHIDEEUQ16TEVZCWD
- Story Text: A 27 year old policeman killed in the Mount Carmel fires, was buried on Friday (December 3). Draped in an Israeli flag and with a full police honour guard, the coffin of Maor Ganon was brought into the Yavne cemetery where the ceremony took place. Family members and friends sobbed as Ganon was laid to rest Dozens of those killed on Thursday in the fires were buried throughout Israel.
Firefighting teams from around the world flew into Israel on Friday to help battle a huge forest fire close to the northern city of Haifa that has killed at least 40 people and forced mass evacuations.
Planes and helicopters repeatedly swooped over the burning woodland, dumping scooped-up sea water onto the flames below, but officials conceded that the blaze was still out of control more than 24 hours after it started.
The largest fire in Israel's history scorched more than 7,000 acres of land, destroyed houses and revealed major shortcomings in the ability of local emergency services to tackle such a disaster.
Israel appealed for international help on Thursday and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Greece, Cyprus, Britain, Jordan, Bulgaria and Russia had all heeded the call, as well as Turkey, which laid aside recent diplomatic strains to send aid.
Egypt, Azerbaijan, Spain, Croatia, France had also offered contributions, with Israel waking up to the fact that it had few effective means of its own to tackle the inferno.
A huge pall of smoke was clearly visible from the Mediterranean port of Haifa, just to the north of the fire, and authorities ordered the evacuation of some 15,000 residents around the Carmel Ridge, where the blaze was focused.
At least 41 people died on Thursday, mainly prison service officer trainees, when their bus was engulfed in flames as they headed towards a prison to help evacuate 500 inmates to safety, emergency services said.
Witnesses said the coach was confronted by a wall of fire and was unable to do a U-turn on a winding, hill road, giving its passengers no chance to escape.
The first of the victims were buried on Friday and there was barely concealed fury that so many people should have died in a country that carries out regular drills to rehearse for attack from its many enemies and spends billions of dollars on arms.
Fire crews from across Israel were mobilised to combat the fire, which was believed to have started at an illegal garbage dump. But critics said they responded too slowly to the emergency and were woefully ill-equipped to tame the inferno.
Netanyahu said plans would be presented to the government in the coming week to buy fire-fighting aircraft.
While Europe freezes in an early winter, Israel has had unseasonably hot weather and suffered its driest November in 60 years. The parched land meant the fire spread with devastating speed through the densely-wooded hills.
Some Israeli newspapers speculated that the fire might have been started deliberately, and one suggested it might prove to be the "worst terror attack" in Israel's history.
There was no official word on why the fire took hold. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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