Fire crews assisted by fire-fighting planes, Jewish National Fund employees, Nature and Parks Authority rangers and two IDF companies spent all day Thursday fighting a large fire that broke out in the Gamla Nature Reserve in the Golan Heights. The fire erupted at about 2:00 a.m. and is thought to have wiped out virtually all the vegetation in the reserve's open spaces.
More than 10,000 dunams of vegetation (2,500 acres) were annihilated by the flames.
Sources in the Fire Service estimated that the fire began when shells fired in an IDF training area set alight a field of thorns. The fire spread from there.
The Nature and Parks Authority safely evacuated 15 vultures that were being held in an acclimation cage on the reserve. The vultures were hatched in captivity as part of a project to enlarge the local vulture population, which is in danger of extinction.
The IDF said in response that “the IDF trains all year round, including the summer months. The IDF is aware of the problem of fires in the Golan Heights training grounds and acts to minimize their rate of recurrence and prevent them from spreading. Besides this, whenever a fire breaks out in the firing ranges, the IDF immediately halts its training, acts to quickly put out the fire and aids the fire fighting and rescue crews as best it can.”