Fire Service reports ‘no dramatic incidents’ in area of blazes near Jerusalem

The Fire and Rescue Service says there are “no dramatic incidents” in the area of the fires near Jerusalem.

“Several smoke locations are being monitored, firefighting forces and firefighting aircraft continue to operate, and everything is under full control,” the service says.

The Israeli Air Force has not been activated to fight the blazes today, as the service has said they are under control.

On Wednesday, when major fires were raging near Jerusalem, the IAF said it offered the Fire and Rescue Service assistance in the morning hours, but was rejected. The fire service told the IAF at the time to be prepared to potentially provide a firefighting plane in the evening hours, according to military officials.

But at 1 p.m., as the fires began to spread in the Jerusalem area, the IAF on its own accord began to prepare its C-130J Super Hercules heavy transport planes for firefighting efforts, despite not receiving any official request from the fire service.

Preparing the Super Hercules, known in the IAF as Shimshon, for firefighting efforts takes several hours.

Only at 3 p.m. did the fire service send the IAF a request to have a firefighting plane ready, and it was deployed within two and a half hours, at 5:30 p.m. Because the IAF began to prepare the planes before the formal request from the fire service, they were deployed much faster than it would have normally taken.

Four Super Hercules planes were involved in the firefighting efforts on Wednesday and Thursday, dropping nearly 100 loads of retardant material over the major fires in the Jerusalem area.