Scorching Temperatures Lead to Fires and Evacuations Throughout Israel

By Danielle Reisman 
image: http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/unnamed-3.jpg
Fire in the southern Israeli city of Rahat, due to high temperatures on May 27, 2015. Photo by Talucho/FLASH90
Fire in the southern Israeli city of Rahat, due to high temperatures on May 27, 2015. Photo by Talucho/FLASH90
A heat wave sent the mercury soaring in Israel yesterday with all time high temperatures reaching 42ºC (107ºF) in Tel Aviv yesterday. In central Israel, a wildfire broke out on the streets of Tel Mond, just north of Tel Aviv.  The fire spread to a gas tank causing it to explode and damaged homes in the residential neighborhood.
“Three houses were completely destroyed near the religious elementary school” Tel Mond resident Robert Bash told Breaking Israel News. “Local social networks were buzzing last night with neighbors desperately trying to help the families displaced by the fire, including an elderly woman in a wheel chair.”
The 80 year old woman was rescued from her smokey home by her son and grandson who live next door. She was rushed to the Tel Mond medical center as her home was engulfed by flames. “The heat is really becoming a nightmare,” Shoshi Ochayon, a resident of Tel Mond, told Breaking Israel News, “It is very sad to see our neighbors suffer like this.”
image: http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/1610936_10206506767005497_2595116718620619509_n.jpg
1610936_10206506767005497_2595116718620619509_n
House in Tel Mond up in smoke (Photo: Facebook)
Near Beit Shemesh, twenty firefighters and four aircrafts were called on to help extinguish a forest fire spreading towards the heavily populated city.
In Southern Israel, residents of Mabu’im were asked to evacuate their homes due to concern that another brush fire would spread there.
Extra emergency personnel from Magen David Adom, the Israeli Defense Forces, and fire departments across the country have been mobilized. The Israeli Education Ministry cancelled field trips in areas which were expected to be affected by the extreme heat.
Officer Shmulik Friedman, head of operations branch at the Israel Fire and Rescue Services, said in a Ynet article that a number of emergency units were cooperating to contain the blazes, “We have reinforced forces throughout the whole country in a truly unprecedented manner”.
Magen David Adom spokesman Zaki Heller stated out that “on days like this, when temperatures jump, we have an increase in cases of dehydration, fainting and fatigue, and we beseech those most vulnerable, the old, children, babies and the chronically ill, to pay attention to our instructions to hydrate.”
Israel’s extreme weather comes immediately following the intense flooding in Texas and Oklahoma this week which left at least 19 dead and the continuing heat wave in India which has resulted in over 1,400 deaths.