State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss's findings, compiled
over several years and published two days after the fire in northern Israel
that killed 42 people was extinguished, called for major changes and upgrades
to the service.
"In view of the current circumstances, in an emergency
(the fire services) could collapse under the strain which they are expected to
face," a passage in the 40-page report said.
With a paltry 1,500 firefighters catering for a population
of some 7 million and almost no aerial dousing capability, Israel's
shortcomings were cruelly exposed in the blaze which Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu termed a "national tragedy." Many of the country's
firefighters and their ageing and inadequate appliances were left helpless in
the face of the blaze and Israel frantically recruited international help, with
35 aircraft coming to the rescue from 10 countries.
Local media assessed the cost of the damage in the Carmel
mountain fire at around 2 billion shekels ($550 million) with scores of houses
either totally or partially destroyed and 5,000 hectares of forest, some 5
million trees, burnt to a cinder.
Netanyahu said Israel would have to set up its own aerial
firefighting capability because it was the only way to battle major forest
blazes in the hot, tinder-dry summers.
The report was initiated by the state comptroller after
Israel's war against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon in 2006 when the guerrilla
group launched thousands of rockets that ignited many fires, although these
were mainly in urban areas.
Critics said that in a future, similar war, if rockets were
to ignite Israel's forests, international help might not be so forthcoming and
pilots would refuse to operate in a combat zone.
The report said that the firefighters, who are currently
overseen by some two dozen local authorities countrywide, should be coordinated
under a single, national umbrella body. It also said a huge increase in funding
was needed.
It named some senior ministers and their predecessors,
including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz and
Interior Minister Eli Yishai for the continuous failings, which had got
significantly worse since the 2006 war.
"There is no central body that has the responsibility
to review and decide on the fire service's requirements and allocate assets in
an emergency ... there is an immediate need to resolve the funding crisis,"
the report said.
It also criticized a failure to implement a 2008 cabinet
decision under then-prime minister Ehud Olmert to set up a national fire
service but praised the allocation of an additional 100 million shekels (about
$30 million) of funding.
On Wednesday, Israel's parliament also passed the
preliminary reading of a bill to set up the national fire service. Nobody
objected and it passed 41-0.
