Slippery Slope

The State Comptroller’s report on the Carmel Fire places overall responsibility for the low level of preparedness of the fire services on the whole government, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  The report places special responsibility on Interior Minister Eli Yishai who is in charge of the fire services and on Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz who conditioned the transfer of funds to the fire services on their completion of an organizational reform. (Haaretz)

(Hebrew - Walla)

The police investigation of last year’s Carmel fire did not investigate the functioning of the police officers and commanders during the event, or the cooperation between the police department and other agencies, such as the fire services, prison service and local councils.  A team from the fraud division checked the radio recordings and interviewed the police officers on the scene, but not their commanding officers.  The investigative team was set up in the Northern District Fraud Division, under the command of Superintendent Aaron Gal-Or.

A year after one of Israel’s deadliest blazes ripped through the Carmel mountain, a planned reform of the fire services still is going nowhere. This, in violation of a government decision to revamp the country’s firefighting services by the end of 2012. The administration of the Ministry of Domestic Security, headed by Yaakov Ganot, is yet to open negotiations with the firefighters union on the proposed changes.

Some of the Palestinian firemen who helped extinguishing the Carmel fire were refused entry to Israel, to participate in a commemoration ceremony in their honor. The ceremony was postponed till further notice. (Hebrew)

The State Comptroller, Micha Lindenstraus, published a special report, covering the firefighting and life-saving system in Israel and the people responsible for its status and functioning during the Carmel fire. The report charges Minister of the Interior Eli Yishai, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is a series of failures, causing the system to fail during fire. The Carmel fire cost the lives of 42 people and laid waste to tens of thousands of dunams of woodland. (Hebrew)

The Haifa District Court overturned the decision of the Peace Court, and cancelled the extended detention of the boys from Osafiya, suspected of leaving a fire unattended, thereby causing the Carmel fire. “No one disputes that the fire is a national disaster, traumatic for many, especially for people whose loved ones were killed by it; and yet the narrow shoulders of two minors, aged 14 and 16, ought not to carry the burden of this national disaster”, wrote the judge. (Hebrew)