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THE BEST OF TIMES, THE WORST OF TIMES Huge forest fires that left hundreds homeless and caused over a billion shekels in damages highlighted the ability of Israelis to rally in times of adversity, but also fanned sectarian tensions and raised questions about disaster preparations

30 THE REPORT DECEMBER 26, 2016 JACK GUEZ / AFP AFP / GUEZ JACK

THE JERUSALEM REPORT DECEMBERA firefighting26, 2016 plane in action over Haifa, November 2431 MARKETPLACE

t was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolish- ness.” “IThese are the opening words of Charles Dickens’ 1859 novel, “A Tale of Two Cit- ies,” about tumultuous London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. Dickens’ words also describe the people of and its leadership during and after the disastrous series of fires that began No- vember 22 and burned for almost a week. The most serious damage occurred in Haifa, where the fires forced 75,000 resi- dents to be evacuated from their homes and damaged 175 buildings; 100 buildings were destroyed and 500 people left homeless. It was the biggest such fire since the Mount Carmel forest fire in 2010 that killed 44. In that fire, a Prison Service bus was trapped and burned, killing many cadets, as well as three senior police officers. The fire itself was caused by negligence – a teenage resi- dent of Isfiya, a Druse town, told police he inadvertently started the fire with a hookah ember. After the Carmel fire, there was a “Fire caused by arson or incitement to ar- aircraft, equipment and firefighters. And, ac- wave of arson throughout Israel and the West son is terrorism,” Netanyahu said. The Hai- cording to The Jerusalem Post, 40 veteran US Bank. All these fires were put out quickly. fa fires seem to have begun simultaneously firefighters “refused to watch the tragedy un- In times of crisis, we see the very best of in at least four locations, lending credence fold from afar” and boarded planes, traveled ourselves and, at the same time, the very to the suspicion. up to 20 hours and fought the fires alongside worst. We see much wisdom and much their Israeli brothers. They were part of the foolishness. We agreed that those Emergency Volunteer Project, launched by Israel seven years ago to train and work with Worst of Times: The total damage caused who gloat over human US firefighters during emergencies. by more than 600 fires throughout Israel “If there is anything I can do to help Is- is estimated at 1 billion shekels, half of it suffering of any kind rael and my fellow firefighters,” said Ben in Haifa. Nearly 5,000 acres of forest and are beneath contempt Arnold, a Los Angeles firefighter, “I am brush land were burned. Mercifully, there willing and love to do it.” was no loss of life, though more than 100 Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud people were taken to hospitals suffering It is known that Arab villages, too, suf- Abbas sent firetrucks and crews to help bat- from smoke inhalation. fered fires, including Daliat al-Carmel, tle the blaze. They were active in Haifa, in The series of fires came after a two-month Ka’abiyye, Iksal, Kabul and Tamra. the settlement of Halamish, and drought, followed by high temperatures, I received an email from a student in especially at the fire in Nataf, a small com- near-zero humidity and fierce winds that Egypt who took some of my online entre- munity in the Jerusalem hills. Netanyahu left underbrush and fallen leaves tinder dry. preneurship courses. He stated his disgust called to thank him. Israeli police have ap- Wind-blown sparks fanned by gale winds over numerous gleeful posts on Arab social prehended a suspect from an Arab village, leaped hundreds of meters to start new fires. media, trumpeting “Israel is Burning!” We Kattana, bordering Nataf, who is suspected Public Security Minister told agreed that those who gloat over human of throwing a gasoline-filled bottle over the Army Radio that “almost half the fires were suffering of any kind are beneath contempt. security fence and starting the blaze. the result of arson” long before fire inves- Israelis rallied to support the exhausted tigators had completed their investigation. Best of Times: Israel’s neighbors rallied to firefighters, who raced from fire to fire, Prime Minister and send help. Eleven countries – Cyprus, Rus- mostly without sleep, for a week or more. Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh made sia, Croatia, Italy, Turkey, Greece, Jordan, Many volunteers helped evacuate the elder- similar claims. Egypt, Azerbaijan, France and Ukraine – sent ly, rescue family pets and bring food and

32 THE JERUSALEM REPORT DECEMBER 26, 2016 AMIR COHEN / REUTERS REUTERS / COHEN AMIR

ing around the clock. ter on a fire, or 25 times that of each of the But Amir Oren, writing in the daily 14 smaller planes in Israel’s airborne squad- Haaretz, cited airborne firefighting experts ron. The supertanker soaked the forests who cast doubt on the effectiveness of these surrounding Nataf to prevent the fire from planes. They noted that before the squadron recurring. Watching this huge plane swoop existed, Israel used crop-spraying planes. low over the trees and dump its vast tonnage “With the establishment of the new squad- of water was quite amazing. I’m certain the ron,” said the expert, “spray-plane pilots bill for its services was as huge as the plane were taken off their supplementary job of itself. firefighting. Their small and nimble planes Predictably, even while the fires raged, with their diving and climbing abilities al- opposition politicians called for a parlia- lowed the dispersal of fire retardants much mentary inquiry into the debacle. This closer to the target, allowing them to attack violates the most important principle of fires that larger planes could not tackle.” debriefing (the process of dissecting an event and drawing conclusions): Seek in- How should we prepare sights and lessons learned rather than as- sign blame. No debrief can be effective if for an earthquake? participants are trying to evade blame and For another series of conceal the truth. fires? For massive rocket Wisdom: The disastrous fires point to at least two conclusions related to Israel’s attacks in a future war? lovely forests that resulted from the debrief. First, pine forests. Over the years, the Jewish National Fund planted more than A firefighter douses flames outside Haifa; “In the past,” continued the expert, “hous- 240 million trees all over Israel, providing the fires destroyed some 5,000 acres of es didn’t burn because spray planes came “luscious belts of green covering more than woodland down low, nipping the fires in the bud. It’s 250,000 acres.” For this we applaud them. not the amount of water or retardant that’s But, those luscious belts of green are drink to the firefighters. important, but the accuracy of hitting the mostly pine forests and they are particularly Firefighters, police, the IDF, emergency right spots. Aerial firefighting used to cost flammable, as we saw in Haifa, Nataf and medical squads, Home Front officers and 5 million shekels a year ($1.25m.), without elsewhere. Today, the JNF is planting other soldiers all worked together in close harmo- the price of retardants. Now, with 14 desig- types of trees and is thinning out existing ny, having prepared through numerous sim- nated planes, the costs are 10 times higher pine groves. ulated exercises. On-site command posts and houses are burning.” Second, firebreaks. When you drive were set up quickly, and helicopters and Each of these 14 small planes carries through US forests, everywhere, you see drones gave fire crews a bird’s-eye view. 3,000 liters of chemicals. After dumping fire breaks – swaths of cleared land designed The Haifa residents ordered to evacuate did their load on the fire, they need to land to to keep wildfires from spreading. Some so quickly and willingly, despite the im- reload. Much larger planes from Russia, fire breaks were put in place after the 2010 mense traffic jams; senior citizens were tak- Greece and Turkey proved able to skim the Mount Carmel fire, but not nearly enough. en from their homes for the elderly to Haifa ocean just offshore and load up with water They may not have helped much in the 60- Auditorium, where they were cared for by ‒ 6,000 liters worth ‒ returning to dump it mph winds that fanned the latest blazes, as volunteers and youth. Many offered to put on the Haifa fires within five minutes. They burning branches were blown for long dis- up those who were made homeless. By Sat- proved very effective. tances, but more firebreaks are needed and urday night, November 26, most residents Netanyahu has proposed establishing a more should have been in place long ago. were able to return to their homes, except, multi-nation airborne firefighting squadron. Technion Prof. Yohay Carmel notes that of course, for those who now had none. This makes a lot of sense. What a single climate change is causing “things we hav- country cannot afford, a dozen countries en’t seen before. In the 2010 [Mount Car- Foolishness: Netanyahu is quick to take can. The planes could quickly fly from one mel fire], there was no significant rainfall credit for establishing Israel’s 14-plane fire- country to another when needed. until early December so the vegetation had fighting squadron after the Mount Carmel After the fires were extinguished, the endured nine months of aridity.” Now, six fire. Pilots of these planes risked their lives, iconic supertanker arrived from the US. years later, a similar situation arose. And it flying at low altitudes and dumping fire-re- This is a Boeing 747-400 that is able to will likely recur. Forest fires have raged an- tarding chemicals on the raging fires, work- dump 20,000 gallons (74,200 liters) of wa- nually throughout the Mediterranean basin,

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in France, Spain, Portugal and Greece, as generously relieved them of huge sums of fires and natural disasters? Israel borders on well as in California and Australia. compensation with its rather hasty “terrorist the Syria-Africa rift, an earthquake-prone According to Israel’s firefighting service, arson” declaration. region. How should we prepare for an the number of forest fires in Israel has actu- Netanyahu, Erdan and other ministers earthquake? For another series of fires? For ally declined in the past two years. But the were quick to ascribe the fires to arson, but massive rocket attacks in a future war? The magnitude of the fires, and the damage they arson investigations take time and the jury latter could cause damage far worse than caused, is unprecedented. is still out. that caused by the fires. Hanoch Tzoref, a Jewish National Fund In their book, “Playing Against Na- official also attributes this to climate Predictably, even ture,” Prof. Seth Stein, a geophysicist and change. “Winter is coming later,” he not- seismologist, and his father, the late Prof. ed, “and the months of November and De- while the fires Jerome Stein, an economist, tackle this cember have become very dry, with strong tough question. They note that, facing na- winds. Continuous dry, strong winds not raged, opposition ture, you can do four things: Accept, trans- only dry the laundry, but also the vegetation politicians called for a fer, avoid, mitigate. and turns it into highly flammable materi- Accept ‒ Decide the risk is not big enough al… I’ve had 40 years of experience in the parliamentary inquiry to justify massive investment of resources Jerusalem Hills and don’t remember contin- and effort to reduce its effects. Not all risks uous dry winds for an entire week.” into the debacle. justify huge investments. Who will compensate those whose homes Transfer – Use insurance or another meth- were damaged or destroyed? The answer This violates the most od to pass the risk on to someone else. “There lies somewhere between wisdom and important principle is no such thing as ‘other people’s money,’” foolishness. note the two authors. The Property Tax Fund, of debriefing: Seek for instance, which compensates those who FINANCE MINISTER Moshe Kahlon lives incur loss is the money of the people, paid in Haifa, so for him the fire was very per- insights and lessons for by taxes. So when it is used to compen- sonal. He was quick to announce that the sate for property damage, we are transferring government will compensate those who learned rather than money from one pocket to another. suffered damage. The prime minister held assign blame This process may be just, or it may not the weekly cabinet meeting in Haifa and be. But, always, the criteria of social justice said the same. Interior Minister Arye Deri and cost-benefit should be applied. Those said small initial payments of 2,500 shekels According to The Marker columnist and resources could have other alternate uses. would be made at once to all those who suf- editor Merav Arlosoroff, only 60 percent of Using them must be justified. fered damage. homes in Israel have any insurance at all, and Avoid – Minimize exposure to the risk. Under Israeli law, property damage due to only half of those have full insurance on the There are a great many things to be done to terrorism is compensated through the Prop- furnishings, as well as the structure. In the avoid future fire damage. Home owners and erty Tax Fund. This fund has NIS 8.3b. at Mount Carmel fire, for instance, allegedly municipalities, for instance, can be required present, many times more than the fire dam- caused by negligence, the government did to keep trees, brush and bushes a safe dis- age, and the government has committed to not compensate those whose homes burned tance away from homes. Fire breaks should transferring another NIS 1.7b. billion to the and who had no insurance at all. be more common. fund, topping it up to NIS 10b. The fund is So, Arlosoroff notes, we have an absurd Mitigate – Take other measures to reduce administered by the Israel Tax Authority. situation in which those who were prudent damage and losses. After the 2010 fire, Is- Home insurance has two parts: The struc- and responsible and did pay for full home in- rael’s firefighting capability was upgraded, ture itself and the home’s contents and fur- surance (structure and contents) stand to lose new equipment purchased and “first re- nishings. The declaration that the fires were since they cannot claim damages from their sponder” teams were more closely integrat- caused by arson nullifies policy owners’ insurers because the government has de- ed. This paid off during the latest fires. claims against the insurance companies. At clared the cause terrorist arson and because In my column, I generally write about is- the same time, the Property Tax Fund pays the Property Tax Fund pays for only part of sues that are impersonal and remote from only up to NIS 150,000 in compensation for the damage. This is why many of the insur- me and my family. But this fire was, to me, damage to furnishings. Kahlon wants the ance adjusters sent by the Property Tax Fund very personal. On Thursday, November 24, insurance companies to pay the difference were unwelcome when they visited burned it proved difficult to return to our home in between the total damage to furnishings homes in Zichron Ya’acov. The owners un- Zichron Ya’acov, a community of 22,000 and the NIS 150,000 ceiling that the gov- derstand that the government’s hurried dec- people located 22 miles south of Haifa, along ernment will cover. The insurers probably laration of arson may cost them dearly. the Carmel mountain ridge. A raging fire in will agree because the government has What should we do to prepare for future the neighborhood known as Givat Eden just

34 THE JERUSALEM REPORT DECEMBER 26, 2016 north of our home led police to evacuate everyone and close adjacent roads. At least 10 homes were destroyed by fire there. Community is truly From the road, I watched the raging fires that scorched the hillsides and filled the air with acrid smoke. I watched the heartwarming water-bombing planes spray red fire-retard- A personal account of the Haifa fires ing chemicals on the flames. It was apoca- lyptic, surreal. Once at home, I turned on Dr. Jesse Lachter is a senior gastro- ters live, we think it was our son’s elemen- the garden hose and sprinkled the nearby enterologist at Rambam Healthcare tary and high school friend Guy, whom trees and bushes as a precaution. In the face Campus and founder and president of my wife taught for a while in elementary of Mother Nature’s rage, a garden hose is Bridges for Hope, an NGO that promotes school who always wanted to be a fire- puny but somehow reassuring. tikkun olam programs. He recounts: man and is an active fireman now, who Later, on Saturday morning, I went for a There were huge fires all over the Car- actually put out the fires alongside my hike through Givat Eden. I saw this pastoral mel neighborhoods in Haifa, our street yard and inside my neighbor’s yard. We’ll suburb, still green and beautiful, with ugly and neighborhood being shown again find out soon if it was him. In any case, scorched patches of ground and trees on the and again on the TV news. Now, we are firemen are heroes. They worked in Haifa hillsides, and then saw a single house, badly staying at home and feel safe. for 48 hours nonstop at hundreds of sites burned, with a motor scooter in the drive- We returned to our home to find that either because of fierce easterly winds or, way that had been reduced to ashes. None all is well inside, but the phone lines and hopefully not, due to arson. of the nearby homes had been touched. The the water pipes were severely scorched randomness of the fire shook me. In the face and are non-functional so we have no ANOTHER HEARTWARMING aspect of of disaster, we ask, why me? Why us? Why water and only cellphones. And, the these fires has been the regional and this particular house? There are no good house smells from the smoke. There is a international help we received. The Pal- answers. little bit of emotional trauma involved, estinians from Jenin sent firetrucks and My wife and I sold our apartment in Hai- not much, and I assume it’ll pass pretty staff and worked to extinguish fires, and fa last summer, when we moved south to fast. There has been no loss of life and help was offered and accepted from Zichron Ya’acov. That building, a series of “only” 100 or so people went to hospi- Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus, Greece and oth- apartments that slope down the mountain- tals for smoke inhalation despite hun- ers including the US. side, borders on a wadi (dry river bed) and dreds of fires during fierce winds. I had dozens of phone messages and was damaged by the fire ‒ the top apartment Most troubling is the thought, spread calls offering me a place to stay, friends, belonging to a close friend and neighbor for by fire services officials and fanned big family, and even quite a few of my pa- 35 years was utterly destroyed. She lost by politicians and others, that the fires tients sent messages offering support. priceless memorabilia worth far more to her were due to arson by Palestinians trying People pull together. When our neighbor- than the furnishings and paintings. to burn us out of Israel. When I tell peo- hood was evacuated due to the fires, our We all live in bubbles of security, routine ple I’ll only believe this when someone is daughter arranged for my wife and me to and certainty. Once in a blue moon, that bub- not merely accused but is actually found sleep in Tel Aviv at the home of one of her ble is burst by a cataclysmic and unexpected guilty of this in court, I’m laughed away friends who was abroad for the weekend event. For me, this fire was such an event. as naïve; but I feel that setting neighbor- and who was more generous than any- Many good people I know are suffering. hoods alight is beyond the depths I want one could expect. My daughter and her And, but for chance, my wife and I might to ascribe to anyone until a judge finds family were also evacuated and they slept well have joined them. This has shaken me. it to be so. I have that little faith in politi- at her sister’s home. As a British TV report- At the same time, the people of Israel cians who fan hatred far too easily. er who filmed the area behind our home again have shown their enormous resilience, told me: In Britain, the spirit of community their ability to bounce back from adversity, MY DOWNSTAIRS neighbor is a para- when there is such a widespread threat is their ability to rally together and help one medic. When the flames were blazing, called the “blitz effect.” another in times of disaster. And, as always, he found a fireman who was working the Indeed, the outpouring of offers of perhaps naively, I wish this social resilience huge hoses on Hantke Street and brought support over this Thanksgiving gave me and sense of community could endure in him up to our backyard. The fireman many more than plenty of reasons to be good times, as well as in bad, forever. ■ eventually brought three others to help grateful for the huge international net- with putting out the many fire sites next work of people who care. Community is The writer is senior research fellow at the to and behind our home. Because the fire- truly heartwarming. People, today, do S. Neaman Institute, Technion and blogs at man asked my neighbor where the Lach- not live alone, no man is an island. ■ www.timnovate.wordpress.com

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