Day two of the fire

I came back home this morning around 9.00. Spend all night in the hospital and had a CT scan. Fortunately, it is "just" bronchitis and not another lung embolism as I had 2 years ago. I was happy to leave as the hospital was overcrowded with patients coming in from the evacuated hospital and some rescue people who had inhaled smoke. The sky over the mountain is orange yellow. Pictures below are taken from our kibbutz.

All of Israel's 1500 firefighters nationwide have come up North. Our kibbutz sends a car with food supplies to the firefighters. Planes flying over all the time, filling up with water from the sea and trying to fight the fire. Planes and helicopters arrived from many countries in Europe, Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Croatia, Britain, Russia (send a huge plain that carries 42 ton of water, where Israeli planes carry one ton!), Azerbaijan, Spain, USA, 4 Dutch helicopters are to arrive Monday...Egypt sends 10 ton of fire extinguishing material. Bulgaria sends 97 firemen. Jordan sends 3 firetrucks with crews. It is really heartwarming to see how everybody tries together to end this catastrophe.

The strong wind is going westwards. You can see my kibbutz in the yellow block and see the fire is going away from us, but the direction can change anytime. 16.000 people have been evacuated already. As for now, 42 people have died and many wild animals. By now over 30.000 dunams have burned. They have already arrested 2 people suspected of arson and talk about eco-terrorism. It will take up to 50 years to repair the damage to the national park, Carmel mountain.