Prisons service readies to evacuate inmates from Haifa-area jails

The Israel Prison Service said it was preparing to evacuate two prisons in the Haifa area Thursday, as a wildfire ignited the city and surrounding Carmel forest.

Around 600 prisoners and 150 prison workers will be evacuated from the Carmel and Damon prisons if needed.

The prison service’s elite Nahshon unit is awaiting the order to evacuate the prisons with special vehicles designed for transporting prisoners, and will bring the prisoners to five other prisons throughout Israel that have been ordered to prepare to receive them.

If the evacuation is ordered, it will be overseen by Ofra Klinger, the chief commissioner of the Israel Prison Service, and will be carried out with the assistance of the police and the fire fighting service.

In addition to the prisoners and prison workers, horses and dogs will also be evacuated from the prisons.

In 2010, 37 prison service cadets and a driver were killed while trying to make their way to the Damon prison to evacuate inmates as the massive Carmel forest fire raged nearby.

In what became the deadliest fire in the nation’s history, the bus the cadets were traveling on became trapped on a burning forest road and was incinerated with the men and women still on board.

Although two people on the bus escaped, the driver and 37 prison staff died as well as three policemen and three firefighters who were trying to save them.

Another cadet traveling in a car behind the bus also survived.