One of six air tankers working on the fire in Israel, July 17, 2011. Photo: Yossi Zamir

On Sunday a wildfire on the outskirts of Jerusalem threatened the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial before it was brought under control that evening. The fire came within 40 meters of the facility before it was contained by 50 firefighters and six air tankers.

Here is an excerpt from a report by IsraelNationalNews.com:

A major fire broke out on Sunday in the Jerusalem Forest, near the Har Herzl military cemetery and the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial project. Some 150 dunam (37 acres) of forest were destroyed before the blaze was under control and the flames were stoped several hundred meters before reaching the Pi Glilot fuel storage facility.

The fire spread quickly through the woods due to the heat. Eight firefighting squads were working to extinguish the blaze all afternoon. They requested planes to help as well.

As they battled the Jerusalem Forest fire, firefighters were alerted to a second blaze south of the capital, near Tzur Hadassah. Police are investigating a suspicion of arson as the fires are now known to have broken out in five places simultaneously.

Late last week a major forest fire raged in the Golan region in the north for almost 24 hours. The fire burned 10,000 dunams (2,471 acres) of land and caused three women to suffer light injuries from smoke inhalation.

The firefighters made use of six of the seven Air Tractor AT 802 single engine air tankers that they recently put under contract. The government of Israel saw the need for air tankers after the disastrous Carmel fire last December which burned for four days, claimed 44 lives, forced the evacuation of nearly 17,000 people, and consumed 8,650 acres.

Photo: KKL-JNF

Thanks go out to Dick