After a 52-hour battle with unrelenting flames, Fire and Rescue Services Commissioner Dedy Simhi announced Tuesday evening that the Jerusalem-area wildfire was finally contained.
Fire and Rescue Services said that 204 teams, consisting of around 1,500 firefighters and 20 waterbombers, took part in the efforts to put out the blaze in seven different locations.
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Crowd looks as waterbomber discharges fire extinguishing agent on wildfire in Jerusalem area
(Photo: TPS)
Ten communities in the area of the capital were evacuated, including Kibbutz Tzova, Ein Nakuba, Ein Rafa, Ein Kerem, Givat Ya'arim, Beit Meir, Shoresh, Eitanim, Ramat Raziel and Shoeva. A school and a hospital were also evacuated as the fires spread near them.
All residents were allowed to return to their homes, with the exception of patients at Eitanim Hospital and a number of homes in Ramat Raziel and Givat Ya'arim.
The fire had consumed over 6,000 acres of land and Jerusalem District fire chief Nisim Twito assessed nature would take decades to recover from the extensive damage.
"These sights are hard to watch. I've seen how Jerusalem District's green lung turns black within the flames," Twito said. "One does not have to be a great botanist to understand that it will take decades to restore what has been lost."
The large area burned in the Jerusalem mountains causes both heavy air pollution in the surrounding towns and long-term ecological damage. The Jerusalem mountains are characterized by a natural pine forest. The intensity of the fire reached the tops and burned the trees along their entire length. Therefore, recovery from such a fire will take many years and will leave the area scorched for a long time."
Hundreds of thousands of animals, including numerous species of reptiles, rodents, insects and hundreds of different species of mammals are believed to have perished in the fire.
Fire and Rescue Services said that the inferno's devastation was on par with the 2010 Mount Carmel fire which claimed the lives of 44 people and burned through thousands of acres of land.