Homeless man freezes to death in Tel Aviv
Cold spell claims more victims, as two homeless people die after fire erupts in deserted building in Rishon Lezion
A Magen David Adom crew dispatched to the city's Nadav Street on Monday morning proclaimed the man dead. This appears to be another death related to the recent cold spell.
Yaniv Riz, an MDA paramedic, was dispatched to the scene of the incident. "We received a report about an unconscious man lying in the street. When we arrived his entire body was blue. He was lying there for several hours, and when we arrived he had already died of hypothermia."
According to Riz, the man did not find shelter from the cold. "It was on a main street, not in some corner. It appears that he was walking in the street and collapsed.
"What shocked me was that he had a piece of bread in his hand, which he had apparently planned to eat. He had no blanket and was only dressed in a coat and long trousers, nothing more."
On Sunday, two people were killed in a fire that erupted in a deserted building in Rishon Lezion's Herzl Street, south of Tel Aviv. The bodies of the two people, believed to be homeless, were found inside the burnt building after firefighters gained control of the flames.
One of the bodies was burnt as a result of the fire, while the other body was unharmed, causing rescue services to believe that the second person died after inhaling smoke.
A police investigation revealed that the two sought shelter from the cold in the deserted building and choked on the dense smoke while sleeping. The fire then spread throughout the building and destroyed it.
