Fires break out across Israel as area heats up

Forest fires raged in several hot spots around the country Monday, closing roads and consuming hundreds of acres amid soaring temperatures.

Eleven firefighting squads and four aircraft were dispatched Monday to extinguish a raging forest fire which ravaged large areas in the Wadi Ara region near Haifa.

Blazes were also reported in other locations in northern Israel, as well as around Jerusalem.

In Wadi Ara, the blaze broke out near the Vered quarry, located opposite of the Arab Israeli village of Kafr Qara and adjacent to Highway 65, the Walla news site reported. Two hundred acres of forest were reported to have been burned before firefighters manged to contain the flames.

Officials at the Israel Fire Department said that there was no risk of danger to the quarry or to homes in the area, according to Ynet.

Near Jerusalem, authorities briefly closed Route 1, the main highway linking Tel Aviv to the capital, when a large blaze broke in Lifta, near the entrance to the city.

Firefighters on Monday also extinguished blazes in Ein Zivan on the Golan Heights, Beit Haemek and Safed in the Galilee, the Beit She’an region, and two other locations in the south, Ynet reported.

Emergency medical personnel were placed on alert Monday amid forecasts of temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) during the week. Fire bans were instituted across swaths of northern and central Israel, while additional firefighters were mobilized throughout the country, Walla reported.

On June 25, 2014, a series of fires broke out in the forests around Jerusalem’s southeastern edge, burning homes and sending some people to the hospital.

Avi Lewis contributed to this report.