A massive forest fire broke out this afternoon in the hills surrounding Jerusalem’s Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem. Police initially suspected arson, but by early evening concluded that careless picnickers were to blame and detained a 15-year-old Haredi youth who had been playing with fire, together with several friends, in the forest.
Police suspect that the boy’s school class left the site to tour the city without extinguishing the flames they had lit.
The blaze erupted at around 1:30 P.M. in the Aminadav Forest, just outside the capital’s Ein Karem neighborhood. Firefighters attempting to contain the fire reported that the flames were closing in on the nearby hospital, where police say dozens of cars caught alight in the hospital parking lot. Approach roads to the hospital were closed for several hours, except for ambulances.
Police ordered hundreds of residents of nearby moshavim Ora and Aminadav to evacuate their homes, fearing the flames would reach them. Some 30 firefighting teams and five firefighting airplanes battled into the evening to control the blaze. Last night, Jewish National Fund officials estimated that over 1,000 dunams (about 250 acres ) of forest had already been incinerated.