Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan held a ceremony on Tuesday to praise local and foreign firefighters for “carrying out your mission professionally and heroically, without hesitating to endanger your lives in order to save others.”
Erdan hailed Israeli police, fire, and rescue forces for ensuring that there were no fatalities, “as well as are friends from abroad who arrived to help us in our time of need.”
More than 1,600 people were rendered homeless in Haifa because of the string of fires, which were were mostly extinguished by Sunday. The northern city of Zichron Yaakov, the hills surrounding Jerusalem, and parts of the West Bank were also damaged by the fires.
Thirty-five people have been arrested on suspicion of arson in relation to the more than 1,700 brushfires that swept through Israeli between November 18 and 26. “I have instructed the police to save no effort to identify these terrorists and bring them to justice,” Erdan said. “We will find anyone who tries to harm the well being and security of Israeli citizens.”
Foreign firefighters and planes came from Russia, Turkey, Greece, France, Spain, and the United States. Egypt, Jordan, Italy and the Palestinian Authority also contributed vehicles and personnel.
Dozens of American firefighters and emergency personnel left behind their jobs and families to go to Israel as part of the Emergency Volunteers Project (EVP), a network of around 950 volunteer and professional first-responders. Though only a few members are Jewish, they all share a love of Israel.
Retired firefighter Billy Hirth, a Protestant from Texas, organized his group’s efforts from Jerusalem. “We’re just firefighters. When guys hear about a situation like this one, where the Israelis are working as hard as they can, they want to come help,” Hirth told the JTA. “It’s a brotherhood. Firemen are firemen.”
1st of 40 volunteers landed in israel, greeted by @idfonline HFC, USAID, US national guard and reps from Ministry of Public Security. pic.twitter.com/c8kifRvsUM
— EVP Israel (@EVPIsrael) November 26, 2016
The Emergency Volunteers Project was founded in 2009 by Avi Zahavi, who witnessed the strain first responders underwent during the Second Intifada and the Second Lebanon War. He arranged to train interested Americans-in both Israel and the United States-to help in future emergencies.
“Because most of the Americans were trained in Israel, they are familiar with how we operate, and they were able to easily relieve some of the burden on the crews, whether with regular fire response in local districts or in extinguishing the remaining wildfires,” Israel Fire and Rescue Authority spokesperson Oren Shishitzky explained to JTA. “I cannot emphasize enough our appreciation that these guys dropped everything around the Thanksgiving holiday to come here.”
[Photo: Emergency Volunteers Project / Facebook ]