JERUSALEM (VINnews) — In the wake of the brush fires which broke out in central Israel on Wednesday, hundreds of people were evacuated from their homes as the fires neared residential regions.
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Border Police officer Senior Staff Sergeant Major Asher Maman (39) arrived on Wednesday night at the scene of a fire in Moshav Mesilat Zion near Beit Shemesh and came upon a house located within the forest that was engulfed in flames. Maman heard screams coming from the house and rescued a woman and four infants before the fire spread further into their home. “I rescued them after they had already inhaled smoke, and then I joined the MDA teams to have them examined,” Maman recounted to Ynet.
Maman (39), who has served in the Border Police for 20 years and also works as a security officer in the nearby moshav of Aviezer, said that in the afternoon hours he received reports of fires that had broken out in several moshavim and was dispatched to conduct searches in Mesilat Zion. During the searches, Maman noticed that the fire had begun to spread to homes near the forest, where a kindergarten is also located. “I reported that the area was in danger, and then decided the kindergarten needed to be evacuated. I evacuated the children and took them to a safe location,” he said.
According to him, after finishing the evacuation of the kindergarten children, he resumed searching the moshav and then noticed a woman crying for help from the balcony of her house, which had begun to burn in the back, near the forest. “I saw a woman holding infants in her arms, and I saw that her house had caught fire. I ran to her, calmed her down, took the infants to the vehicle, and reported to the command center that houses in the area were on fire. From there, I handed them over to the MDA teams,” he recalled.
After rescuing the woman and the four infants, Maman turned to help rescue animals in the moshav that were also affected by the fire. “We saved dogs and cats from burning yards. On the way out, a woman approached me and yelled, ‘Save my parrot.’ We went into her house and rescued the parrot,” he said. Maman concluded the event by saying: “This is our job as police officers – to save lives. It’s a great joy to be an angel for a moment for someone and to save lives.”
Due to the intense heatwave and extreme temperatures, large fires broke out in the afternoon in the areas of Petachya and Pedaya, and later spread to the Eshtaol forest at the entrance to the moshav of Tarom, north of Beit Shemesh. This led to the evacuation of residents from several nearby communities – some evacuated themselves. Dozens of teams, helicopters, and planes are still operating in the area, and due to the scale of the event, a general mobilization was declared in the fire service.
