Forest Fire Kills 40, Forces Evacuation of 14,000 in Northern Israel

Evacuations continued across northern Israel as a massive wildfire was driven closer to the port city of Haifa by strong Easterly winds on Thursday night.

Over 15,000 residents, including 600 prison inmates, were evacuated as the blaze raged out of control, devastating hundreds of acres of pine forest before sweeping down the slopes of the Carmel plateau towards Israel's third largest city.

By mid-evening Thursday, fire chiefs had admitted publicly to losing control of the fire, believed to have started in an illegal landfill site.

As the flames neared the city limits, residents of Denya, an affluent district of Haifa – a busy port city and the north's economic heartland – were moved to safety.

Israeli firefighters are expected to get support from other countries- including the UK, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Greece- in the form of aircraft to help fight the out of control fire from above. Some of the aircraft arrived in Israel on early Friday morning.