ReliefWeb

On 2 December, around midday, a bushfire started near the village of Usfia, on Mount Carmel. The fire spread rapidly due to the dry weather conditions and strong winds. Immediately, the Carmel region of Magen David Adom (MDA)- Israel's equivalent of a National Red Cross Red Crescent Society and a member of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies - called in additional resources so they would be ready to respond.

As a result of the blaze, a mandatory evacuation of some villages was ordered by the police including a village that housed a prison with 550 prisoners. In the early evening: chaos. A bus with 40 correctional officers and Haifa's Police Commander was caught in the flames, killing 42 people on the spot and causing life threatening injuries to three more.

Magen David Adom immediately activated a large multi-casualty response team, dispatching units from the center and north of Israel. These were nerve racking times. The fire chief declared that they had lost control of the fire. More and more neighborhoods were ordered to evacuate; in total, 15,000 people left their homes to be hosted by neighboring local authorities and host families. The general sense was that there was very little that could be done to stop the disaster.

The Israeli government called for international assistance in the form of fire fighting planes and fire retardant materials. The international community responded to the call. The next morning, relief started arriving from Cyprus, Egypt, Turkey, Spain, Russia, France, Germany, Bulgaria, USA, Jordan and the Palestine authority. At the end of the day, 35 airplanes were fighting the blaze and the fire was finally put out on the evening of 5 December.

Throughout all of this, Magen David Adom provided emergency medical personnel to support the response operation and to treat the medical problems of the fire fighters, police officers, soldiers and volunteers. A special operations and logistics center was set up on site to provide for the needs of MDA staff and volunteers, and support other organizations with lesser capacities. The facility was modeled on the emergency complex that the MDA had recently acquired to support its disaster operations, and was part of the multi-organizational joint command post in the fire response.

MDA senior staff participated in evaluation and coordination meetings. Meanwhile, MDA volunteers demonstrated their extraordinary dedication supporting the northern region staff and volunteers, and giving them the opportunity to have some much-needed rest. Special attention was also given to the emotional well being of all team members (along with that of their physical safety), and a special debriefing session was conducted for those who supported the tragic bus response.