40 people died on Thursday as a huge brushfire was raging across the Carmel Mountains near Haifa, resulting in the death of some 40 people and hurting dozens of others, among them prison guards and firemen.
Firefighting crews were still battling with the flames into the evening hours and expressed no hope of controlling the fire soon.
“We lost all control of the fire,” said the Haifa firefighting services spokesman on Thursday. “There aren’t enough firefighting resources in Israel in order to put out the fire,” he said.
The 40 individuals who died were students in the Prison Service’s prison guard course who were being brought to the Damon Prison to aid in evacuating the prisoners there.
According to an initial investigation of the events, a tree fell down in the middle of the road the bus was taking, trapping the bus between the flames. As a result, 40 of the 50 prison guards who were on the bus died from the flames. Seven individuals were evacuated from the scene in serious condition and transferred to Haifa hospitals.
Read more at HAARETZ.com.
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