The Lindenstrauss Report

The headlines in Israel are focussing on the Report of the State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss on the Israel Fire Services. This Report was written before the Carmel blaze started and though PM Netanyahu asked Lindenstrauss to delay release of the Report in order to include the response of the fire services to the blaze, Lindenstrauss refused, regarding it as a delaying tactic. As expected the Report is extremely critical of the Israeli Fire Services and indicates that their equipment, their training and their coordination are inadequate.

Here is a more detailed listing of the problems:
*There are not enough fire stations and their distribution is poor
*There are not enough fire trucks (349) and most of them are more than 20 years old
*There is not enough manpower (1,685) and not enough of these are first responders (349)
*The ratio of fire fighters to population is ca. 1:10,000 while in other developed countries it is 1:1,000
*There is no computerized communication system, the radio system used is obsolete
*The fire fighters training school is inadequate and dangerous

And who is to blame for this terrible situation, the main culprit identified is Interior Minister Eli Yishai of Shas, the Sephardi religious party. To say that he has neglected previous warnings would be a gross understatement. He is on record as totally ignoring the fire service while focussing on the support of religious schools. He has neither requested funding nor used available funding. The second culprit is Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz, who has not provided enough funds to expand the service. But, of course, these inadequacies go back much further to previous Governments. Also, it is unlikely that Yishai will resign or be asked to resign, since he is from Shas and Netanyahu depends on their support in his coalition. Yishai already issued a statement saying that they are blaming him because he is religious and/or Sephardi. One can say that ulitmately PM Netanyahu should shoulder the blame, but only the opposition is blaming him and Tzipi Livni is calling for his resignation. He did not start the fires and his response was considered by most to be quick and strong. He promised thet he is introducing legislation soon to establish a new national Israel Fire Service that will be under the Defense Ministry (currently the Fire Service is under the local municipalities that come under the Interior Ministry). Also, there will be a separate appropriation for them and there will be a specially trained unit for fighting forest fires. They will also be equipped with the latest generation of fire trucks and with a few water dropping planes. As usual it is too late for the Carmel disaster, but hopefully it will not be too little for the next major fire.