A firefighting officer spoke Wednesday about the Carmel forest fire and firefighting preparedness in a Haifa University conference titled “Preparation and Coping with Emergency Situations in Light of Climate Change – the Carmel Fire as a Test.” The official, Hezi Halevi, said that firefighters had been under-prepared for some time before the fire.

“We knew were weren't ready. We wrote letters, we warned, we went on strike, nothing helped,” he said. “Most of what we did [to fight the Carmel fire] failed, not because the firefighters did not do good work, but due to the intensity of the fire. In the end, the most effective stopping point was the natural one – the fire reached a point where the forest ended.”