Fire spreads to north, residents evacuated

Record ID: 77202

  • Title: Fire spreads to north, residents evacuated
  • Date: 25th November 2016
  • Summary: HORASHIM, ISRAEL (NOVEMBER 25, 2016) (REUTERS) SMOKE BILLOWING AS FIRE ERUPTED IN AREA, FLAG AT SCENE AIRCRAFT EXTINGUISHING FIRE BY SPRAYING FIRE RETARDANT FIRE IN MOUNTAIN MAN LOOKING AT FIRE AIRCRAFT EXTINGUISHING FIRE FIRE AT SCENE AIRCRAFT SPRAYING FIRE RETARDANT FIREFIGHTERS AT SCENE RESIDENTS OF AREA WHO WERE EVACUATED FROM THEIR HOUSES AT SCENE (SOUNDBITE) (English) RESIDENT OF HORASHIM, SAYING: "I think just you know, the fire, jumped. There was a lot of forests here, and there is wind and it is changing directions so I think it is a natural cause." PEOPLE AT SCENE AIRCRAFT SPRAYING FIRE RETARDANT
  • Embargoed: 10th December 2016 13:10
  • Keywords: Israel fires Horashim Haifa north
  • Location: HAIFA, HORASHIM, ISRAEL
  • City: HAIFA, HORASHIM, ISRAEL
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Environment,Weather
  • Reuters ID: LVA00259Y04EF
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: As firefighters kept battling the flames in wooded hills on Friday (November 25), with support from Palestinian firemen and emergency teams from Greece, Cyprus, Croatia, Italy, Russia and Turkey, fire spread to the northern Kibbutz of Horashim.
    A video by Israel Air Force on Twitter showed the fire and the smoke billowing from Haifa houses and woods as seen from the cockpit of a Greek aircraft that helped in extinguishing fires.
    Unseasonably dry weather and easterly winds helped kindle the fires, which erupted on Tuesday and now stretch across half the country.
    In Horashim, people were evacuated and were seen gathering outside their houses.
    A resident of Horashim said that she thinks the fire started because of a natural cause.
    "I think just you know, the fire, jumped. There was a lot of forests here, and there is wind and it is changing directions so I think it is a natural cause," she said.
    Israeli police arrested 13 people on Friday on suspicion of arson, authorities said, after massive wildfires tore through central and northern Israel, a conflagration that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu branded as "terrorism".
    The fires are the biggest in the country since 2010, when 44 people were killed in a massive blaze in the north. Investigators concluded that fire then was caused by negligence.
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