Over 13,000 residents, including 600 prison inmates, were evacuated as the blaze raged out of control, devastating hundreds of acres of pine forest as flames swept down the slopes of the Carmel plateau towards Israel’s third largest city.
By mid-evening Thursday, fire chiefs had admitted publicly that they had lost control of the fire and residents of Denya, an affluent district of Haifa – a busy port city and the north’s economic heartland – were being moved to safety.
At around 4:00 A.M., local time, firefighters said the blaze had reached Highway 4, a major traffic artery linking the north with Tel Aviv, but that they had succeeded in stopping the flames from spreading further.
Earlier, 40 were killed when a bus carrying prison service trainees to assist in the evacuation was engulfed by fire after a falling tree blocked its path.
Two firefighters and a policeman were also among the dead. Elsewhere, at least two more fire crew were reported missing, while the Haifa district police chief was among the injured.
Across the region, traffic crawled to a standstill, with balck smoke and flames visible for miles around.
The blaze broke out shortly before lunchtime and spread rapidly across the tinder-dry Carmel countryside, parched by the hottest November in Israel in 60 years.
One of the first residential areas to be evacuated was Kibbutz Beit Oren, where all 400 residents reached safety before the entire collective farm was razed.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said evacuations would continue and that authorities would take no risks where civilian lives were in danger.
"Evacuations will be conducted as needed, with sufficient advance warning. We do not want any more injuries," he said.
As the fire raged on, the town Isfiyeh, a center of Israel’s Druze community, much of which is concentrated in the Carmel mountains, was next to be evacuated.
Police also evacuated prisoners from Prison 6 and Carmel Prison, as well as students in Haifa University dormitories, who were transferred to a nearby high school.
Some 200 patients from the Tirat Hacarmel psychiatric hospital were also evacuated. Haaretz