Locals Become Firefighters as Israel’s Northern Forests Burn

Stand for Israel  |  July 17, 2024

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(Photo: Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)

Locals and volunteers are helping to manage the burned land in Israel’s north from fires ignited by Hezbollah rockets, reports The Jerusalem Post:

The flames have burned nearly 5,000 acres of land in Israel’s North compared to the around 300 that burn in forest fires in an average year, said the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF). They expect this number to climb once closed military areas near the border are opened and they can survey the damage there.

This is a scope unlike anything KKL-JNF has seen in the forests they tend. They are working with Israel’s Fire and Rescue Authority, but locals are also pitching in to help, because their proximity means that they can be on the ground long before professional firefighters can arrive…

Around 32 people came to help him clear the edges of the forest away from his farm to hopefully keep the fire from reaching it more easily.

One volunteer stood out, an American man in his late 50s who came for two days and stayed for a week, clearing brush and continuing the work of making the farm as safe from fire as possible. “He wasn’t even Jewish,” laughed Lebel, gratefully remembering the help.