Huge forest fire kills 40 in northern Israel

Magen David Adom (MDA) ambulance service confirmed it had recovered the bodies of 40 people who died in the inferno, which was the worst blaze in Israel\'s 62-year history.

"Most of the dead were on board the bus," MDA spokesman Zachi Heller said, referring to a coach which was carrying prison guards who had been en route to evacuate prisoners from Damon jail in the middle of the Carmel national park.

Rescue workers were still searching for an unspecified number of people, among them at least two police officers listed as missing, presumed dead.

A police source had earlier told AFP all the dead were prison guards who had been on board the bus. Haifa\'s police chief, who had been driving in a police vehicle next to the bus, was critically injured, medical and police sources said.

Shortly after midnight, police said strong winds had caused the fire to reach the southern part of Haifa, Israel\'s third largest city with a population of more than 265,000 people.

"Stronger winds mean we have started evacuating the southern Deniya neighbourhood," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said, pointing out that more than 12,000 people had been already evacuated from the towns and villages across the area, as well as from three prisons and a hospital south of the city.

Twelve hours after the fire broke out, it was still raging out of control despite intensive efforts to control it, with fire officials saying the inferno had incinerated at least 8,000 dunams (2,000 acres, 800 hectares) of land.

"It\'s very big, it\'s now on the west side of the Carmel mountains," fire service spokesman Yoram Levy told AFP. "It\'s spreading."

Hundreds of firefighters, rescuers and police were involved in fighting the blaze and the massive rescue effort, with the army saying several hundred of its troops were also helping out.

As the continued to rage, the fire service to issue an urgent call for all of Israel\'s 1,500 firefighters to report to the area, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu send out an urgent international appeal for help.

Offers of assistance came pouring in, with Greece pledging to send four firefighting planes, Cyprus offering a helicopter and another firefighting aircraft, while Bulgaria was to send fly in 90 firefighters.

The foreign ministry said it had also received pledges of help from Romania, Azerbaijan, France, Russia, Croatia and Turkey.

As night fell, fire and rescue chief Shimon Romeach said the blaze was still raging out of control and efforts to curb it were being hampered by strong winds that were likely to become even stronger at dawn.

"I cannot paint a positive picture," he told Channel 1 television.

Efforts to battle the inferno were also hit by a national shortage of airborne fire retardant, police said, following a spate of forest fires over what has been the hottest summer since records began.

Visiting the scene, Netanyahu described the tragedy as an "unprecedented disaster."

"It is a fire on an international scale. The necessary means are not currently in the field but they are on the way here," he said, warning it would take time to control the inferno. "This is a national event, a major disaster, but we are dealing with it."

Dramatic footage from the scene showed flames rushing across the forest floor, engulfing trees and sending thick plumes of smoke into the air.

Firefighters wearing breathing equipment trained jets of water onto the blaze, as ash thrown skywards by the fire rained back down on them.

An AFP photographer counted at least 20 charred bodies lying on orange stretchers by the side of a road, the clothes burnt off their bodies and only their boots intact.

Other footage showed the gutted remains of the bus, which one eyewitness said had been consumed by the flames.

"Anyone who\'s ever seen a firestorm will know. They could not survive it; they had no protection; they just fell to the road and burned alive," fireman Dudu Vanunu told Channel 2 television.

Fire and rescue officials said it was not immediately clear what caused the blaze, which swept through the pine forest covering the Carmel hill ridge, one of Israel\'s most popular beauty spots.

But police spokesman Rosenfeld said the fire had started in three separate places and investigators had not yet ruled out arson.

President Shimon Peres sent his condolences to those affected by the tragedy, and Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad also extended his sympathy during a phone call, a statement from Peres\' office said.

Israel is experiencing an unusually warm and dry winter, with the Meteorological Service listing the midday temperature in Haifa as 31 degrees Celsius (87 Fahrenheit) with winds reaching 30 kilometres per hour (17 mph).

© Copyright AFP Agence France-Presse GmbH - All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed. All reproduction or redistribution is expressly forbidden without the prior written agreement of AFP.