By Rebecca Anna Stoil
At the end of an exhausting week battling fires on the Mount Carmel range, Galilee firefighters labored Wednesday night and throughout the day Thursday to fight fires caused by Katyusha rockets, implementing their special emergency plans for the first time.
As tensions escalated Wednesday evening along the Lebanese border, Galilee fire services announced the enactment of a special crisis plan that was formulated three years ago. Senior fire and rescue officers concluded that should such a Hizbullah assault occur, there would be a large risk of fires that would erupt simultaneously in multiple locations, and that they would not have enough manpower to confront all of the blazes. On Thursday, their fears were proven true - but fortunately, fire officials said, the planning was also correct.
Fire departments across the Galilee entered emergency alert on Wednesday night, and started to implement an order that called for firefighters from the center of the country to be sent to the North to reinforce teams. Fifty-five firefighters from the Dan region and 70 firefighter officer cadets were sent from their training courses to battle the dozens of fires that raged where Katyushas fell.