Maltese nun safe in Haifa inferno

A Maltese nun who lives in Haifa, Israel, close to the scene of a massive fire, has been reported to be safe but shocked.

Maltese diplomats checked on her condition as thousands of firefighters and rescuers fought to control the forest fire that has killed 41 people so far.

As high winds drove the blaze towards the northern port city of Haifa, police and medical officials said rescuers had recovered another body, taking the toll to 41, and warned the number of dead could still rise. 40 were found dead yesterday.

"As of this morning, we have recovered 41 bodies, and there are still three people missing," said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld, adding there were 16 people injured, including three seriously and one critically.

Rosenfeld said 15,000 people had been evacuated as the fire incinerated more than 10,000 acres (over 4,000 hectares) of land and reached the southern part of Haifa, Israel's third-largest city with a population of 265,000.

Police and rescue workers confirmed most of the dead were prison guards on board a bus, who had been trying to evacuate prisoners from a facility in the forest.

"The bus tried to turn around and some tried to get away but they were caught by the fire from two different directions," Rosenfeld told AFP, saying two police officers and third person were still missing.

"We still haven't searched areas like Beit Oren (kibbutz) which were very badly burned so we are not sure what we are going to find, and the toll may still rise," he said.

At the temporary command centre set up at Haifa University, convoys of fire engines were roaring in and out and police were struggling to direct traffic, all under a huge mushroom cloud of smoke, an AFP correspondent at the scene said.

"It looks like a nuclear explosion," observed one bystander.

As the Carmel mountains continued to burn more than 24 hours after the blaze started, at least four Canadair water bombers could be seen flying through the smoke-choked skies, pouring water and fire retardant onto the vast flames.

Two fire-fighting choppers and three small planes were also involved in the huge task of curbing the inferno.

There are only 1,500 firefighters operating across Israel, a number widely accepted as woefully inadequate for a country of 7.6 million people, prompting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to urgently appeal for international help.

By early Friday, five Greek planes, a Bulgarian craft with 100 firefighters, a Cypriot plane and helicopter and a British helicopter were in Israel, a military spokesman said. A second British helicopter was due to arrive soon.

The Israeli army said at least eight international fire-fighting planes and three helicopters were involved in the operation, as well as 150 firefighters from various countries. The foreign ministry confirmed it had received additional pledges of help from Azerbaijan, Croatia, Egypt, France, Jordan, Romania, Russia, Spain and Turkey.

US President Barack Obama expressed his "deepest condolences" for the victims and said US firefighters were on standby, and Australia also said its forces were ready to help.

Visiting the scene late yesterday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the blaze as "a fire on an international scale."

He convened an emergency session of the cabinet in Tel Aviv on Friday morning, after which he was expected to visit the injured at Haifa's Rambam hospital with Defence Minister Ehud Barak.

Rescue officials said firefighters had still not managed to control the fire, and video footage showed much of the horizon engulfed in flames, with plumes of thick black smoke pouring into the air.

Fire and rescue officials said it was not immediately clear what caused the blaze, which swept through the pine forest covering the Carmel hill ridge, one of Israel's most popular beauty spots.

Yoram Levy, a spokesman for the fire service, said the blaze appeared to have broken out in a rubbish dump in the Druze village of Isfiya, an account supported by witness testimony reported by the Haaretz daily.

Pilot Alon Chaim said he had spotted a small fire outside Isfiya shortly after 11:00 am (0900 GMT) on Thursday and had alerted the fire department.

"I flew over the fire, which at that point was a tiny blaze," he told the paper, saying the fire could have been put out very quickly.

The Israeli press was filled with scathing criticism of the government for the country's lack of preparation.

"The wind, it seems, is the only thing directing anything in this country," commentator Ben Caspit wrote in the Maariv daily.