Galilee blaze brings firefighters out again

Six firefighting teams assisted by two planes attempted Tuesday to put out a fire that broke out at Moshav Hazorim in the Lower Galilee.

Two of the town’s residents were rushed to Poriya Hospital near Tiberias to be treated for smoke inhalation.

Earlier Tuesday, only hours after a massive forest fire in the Lachish area was extinguished, firefighters and planes were forced to return to the site of the blaze, as flames once again broke out at the same location. According to the NRG news site, the Lachish fires destroyed upwards of 12,000 acres of forest in the last few days, matching 2010’s Carmel fire, which was Israel’s largest blaze on record.

Representatives of the Jewish National Fund, which plants and manages forests, accused the Israel Defense Forces of causing the fires by training in the area with flammable ammunition, while ignoring extremely dry and windy weather conditions.

“Despite our requests, the army began training in the morning using tracer bullets and tear gas,” said Yigal Ben-Ari, director of the Regional Parks Authority.

“We held meetings at all the bases… we explained about the dangers and reached agreements, but at the end of the day nothing happened. They train in extreme weather, do not listen to our requests and do not keep firefighting forces on alert at the bases,” he said.

Over the past week, police estimated that thousands of fires have broken out throughout the country, according to Israel Radio.