Post date: Dec 05, 2010 3:22:9 PM
A Boeing 747 Supertanker, flown in from the United States, joins Israel's efforts to stop deadly fires.
BEN GURION AIRPORT, ISRAEL (DECEMBER 5, 2010) REUTERS - A Boeing 747 Supertanker, flown in from the United States, on Sunday (December 5), poured water and flame retardant on fires which have killed more than 40 people in Israel.
Politicians and pundits called for officials to resign for their failure to quell the four-day inferno that has, in addition to causing casualties, scorched 12,000 acres (5,000 hectares) of woodland, destroyed millions of
trees, and dozens of homes.Brigadier General Eden Atias, Israeli commander of Nevatim Air Base, said the Evergreen Supertanker's first firefighting mission in Israel was to spray 80,000 litres of water and flame retardant on blazes threatening Ein Hod and Nir Ezion.
"This airplane also will drop approximately 80,000 litres of water and special firefighting material. It will do this pass in low level, 300 to 400 feet and I'm gonna join its first flight to help the pilot to find the place. We plan to try to make, to block the fire that approaching Ein Hod and Nir Ezion. This is our first mission," he told Reuters Television.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went up in a helicopter to view fires burning in the Mount Carmel area on Sunday.
Later Netanyahu convened his cabinet in Tirat Carmel, a fire-stricken town, and pledged to rebuild the area as fast as possible once the fires had been brought under control.
Before the meeting, Israel's Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch, told Reuters Television he was confident the fires would be put out soon.
"We can see the end. I say, I've just come back down from up there, I can see the end. Let's hope that afterwards we will start the end phase," Aharonovitch said.
Israeli Culture and Sport Minister Limor Livnat expressed appreciation for the international effort to help Israel stop the flames.
"This is a real disaster, what happened here, a real tragedy. And the fact that so many countries accepted the call from Prime Minister Netanyahu to come and help Israel is really very important and we are very thankful," she said.
The global effort to help Israel contain the fire continued on Sunday, with Germany, Switzerland and Azerbaijan expected to join a dozen other nations that have sent firefighting equipment.
Two teenagers suspected of starting the blaze through negligence were brought to court a court hearing to extend their remand on Sunday (December 5). Both were accused of having failed to extinguish a camp fire which led to the conflagration, police said.
Israel Radio said the suspects, teenage brothers aged 14 and 16 are residents from a village bordering on the Carmel region woodlands.