Police evacuate some northern residents due to wildfires

Police are evacuating some residents in northern Israel amid two quickly spreading wildfires in the region, first responders say.

One of the wildfires, which firefighters update is now under control, scorched four buildings and one mobile home in Haifa’s Halisa neighborhood, as police evacuated residents in the surrounding area.

Coastal District fire service commander Zvika Moyal says at the scene in Haifa that eight planes operated to put out the fires, alongside “many squads that came both from within the [Coastal] district as well as other districts.”

Since gaining control over the blazes, the fire service kept only two planes and 19 squads on the scene. The fire has not yet been completely extinguished.

Further east, ten firefighting squads are working alongside six planes to extinguish blazes that broke out near Kibbutz Hukok. Police evacuated the first row of houses nearest to the flames, a law enforcement spokesman says.