Octogenarian couple dies in apartment fire in Yarka

Neighbors pull the pair out of their apartment in northern Druze village, but they are declared dead at the scene

By ToI Staff 13 March 2022, 1:31 pm

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An apartment fire in Yarka in which an elderly couple died, March 13, 2022 (Israel Fire and Rescue Services)

An elderly couple in their 80s died Sunday of smoke inhalation after a fire broke out at their apartment in the Druze village of Yarka in northern Israel.

Neighbors rescued the unconscious pair from the burning apartment.

Following several failed attempts to resuscitate them, paramedics and a doctor on the scene pronounced their deaths.

The victims were not immediately named.

It was unclear how the fire started, but police and investigators have opened an investigation into the incident.

A similar incident took place last week in the Bedouin town of Bir al-Maksur in the Galilee in northern Israel, when a 90-year-old man in a wheelchair failed to escape in time as his apartment was engulfed by flames.

Fire and Rescue Services interrogators determined in that case that the fire broke out due to a short circuit originating from an electric oven in the apartment.