Mass Evacuations as Huge BlazeThreatens Haifa

[Nancy Waterman]

Source: Ha-aretz

Mass evacuations were continuing across northern Israel in the early hours of Friday morning as dry easterly winds fanned a massive brushfire towards the city of Haifa. Over 13,000 residents, including 600 prison inmates, were evacuated as the blaze raged out of control, devastating hundreds of acres of pine forest as flames swept down the slopes of the Carmel plateau towards Israel's third largest city.

By mid-evening Thursday, fire chiefs had admitted publicly that they had lost control of the fire and residents of Denya, an affluent district of Haifa – a busy port city and the north's economic heartland – were being moved to safety.

Earlier, 40 were killed when a bus carrying prison service trainees to assist in the evacuation was engulfed by fire after a falling tree blocked its path. Two firefighters and a policeman were also among the dead. Elsewhere, at least two more fire crew were reported missing, while the Haifa district police chief was among the injured.

The blaze broke out shortly before lunchtime and spread rapidly across the tinder-dry Carmel countryside, parched by the hottest November in Israel in 60 years.

Read more: http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/mass-evacuations-as-huge-blaze-threatens-haifa-1.328517

[Xipe Totec]

1. They Call The Wind Mariah

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkmvwCpcZlM

[Bluenorthwest]

2. Haifa is a beautiful city

in a beautiful setting. So this sucks.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

3. I hope they can get this thing under control -

as quickly as possible. Having gone through one in Tahoe, I would not wish it upon anyone.

[Nancy Waterman]

4. It is moving very fast

And it is very dry. Israel is not very big either and Haifa is an important city there.
This is a big story that his hardly being carried here in the media.

[here_is_to_hope]

5. lol...

Its a forest fire near a city in Israel, why would our news media blow up about it?
You suggesting our news media is covering up something concerning Israel?

:shrug:

[Hell Hath No Fury]

6. Tinder dry pine --

those things explode. :( Is CNN International covering it? They have such different (better) coverage than the US feed. Perhaps even Al Jazeera would have coverage.

[dgibby]

7. Here's a link:

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/12/2010122151727717538.html

[NYMdaveNYI]

8. "hottest November in Israel in 60 years."

Global warming? Nah. That’s a liberal hoax.