Homes destroyed as Israeli wildfires spread

Record ID: 77534

  • Title: Homes destroyed as Israeli wildfires spread
  • Date: 24th November 2016
  • Summary: HAIFA, ISRAEL (NOVEMBER 24, 2016) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF FIRE NEAR HOUSES BURNT HAMMOCK OUTSIDE HOUSE VARIOUS OF FIRE TRUCK SMOKE BILLOWING FROM BURNT HOUSE AIRPLANE FLYING OVER FIRE VARIOUS OF FIRE FIGHTERS AT SCENE SMOKE BILLOWING FROM HOUSE VARIOUS OF FIRE INSIDE HOUSE VARIOUS OF FIRE FIGHTERS WORKING ON EXTINGUISHING FIRES MORE OF FIRE FIGHTERS AT SCENE RESIDENT OF HAIFA, NAOMY SHOKOF WALKING TOWARDS HER HOUSE VARIOUS OF SHOKOF OUTSIDE HER BURNT HOUSE HOUSE IN FIRE VARIOUS OF SHOKOF AT HER HOUSE SHOKOF SPRAYING WATER ON FIRE FIRE TRUCK OUTSIDE BUILDING BALCONY OF HOUSE IN FIRE VARIOUS OF FIRE FIGHTERS AT SCENE VARIOUS OF FIRE IN BALCONY FIRE FIGHTER TRYING TO BREAK GATE OF HOUSE BALCONY IN FIRE VARIOUS OF FIRE FIGHTERS AT SCENE POLICE AND FIRE FIGHTERS AT SCENE
  • Embargoed: 9th December 2016 16:00
  • Keywords: Israel fires Haifa
  • Location: HAIFA, ISRAEL
  • City: HAIFA, ISRAEL
  • Country: Israel
  • Topics: Environment,Weather
  • Reuters ID: LVA00159T1VT3
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Firefighters battled to save homes in Israel's third largest city of Haifa on Thursday (November 24) after wildfires tore across central and northern Israel.
    Tens of thousands of residents were ordered to leave the city, and the country's chief of police said politically motivated arson may be behind some of the blazes.
    Television pictures showed a wall of flames raging through central neighbourhoods of Haifa, a city of around 300,000 in the north of the country, engulfing a petrol station that firefighters were rapidly dousing with water.
    The fires have been burning in multiple locations for the past three days but intensified on Thursday, fuelled by unseasonably dry weather and strong easterly winds.
    A lack of rain combined with very dry air and strong easterly winds have spread the fires this week across the centre and north of the country, as well as parts of the West Bank. Hundreds of homes have been damaged or destroyed but no deaths or serious injuries have been reported.
    Local weather forecasters have said the tinder-dry conditions - it has not rained in parts of Israel for months - and strong winds are set to continue for several days and they see little prospect of normal seasonal precipitation arriving.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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