As wildfires continue to wreak havoc in Southern California, Israeli authorities have sounded the alarm about the possibility of similarly destructive fires hitting the Middle East.
The fires ravaging Los Angeles and its surrounding areas have already claimed dozens of lives and razed entire neighborhoods. This disaster was the result of a dangerous combination of hot, arid climate and powerful wind gusts, reaching up to 160 km/h.
With temperatures rising sharply in the eastern Mediterranean, officials from the Fire and Rescue Services Authority told the Times of Israel that an outbreak of the magnitude of that in Los Angeles could not be ruled out.
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“It will happen in Israel, there is nothing to do,” Itzik Cohen, deputy fire commissioner in the Southern District, said earlier this week.
However, despite this imminent threat, fire and rescue service teams are woefully under-equipped to deal with a scenario of this magnitude.
According to the Fire and Rescue Services Authority, staffing levels are well below the firefighter/inhabitant ratio set by the OECD. While the global standard is one professional firefighter per 1,000 residents, Israeli fire crews can only hire one firefighter per 4,500 residents.
Part of the Banias nature reserve damaged by a fire caused by Hezbollah rockets, August 8, 2024. (Credit: Michael Giladi/Flash90)
“We are in demand from start to finish,” says Tal Volvovitch, spokesperson for the Fire and Rescue Services Authority.
Last summer, missiles launched by the Lebanese Shiite terrorist group Hezbollah at northern border towns increased pressure on the Fire and Rescue Services. More than 22,000 hectares have been ravaged by flames in the north. It cost more than 3 billion shekels.
The conflict with Hezbollah has exacerbated the problem, but Oz and other fire protection experts maintain that climate change is the driving force behind the surge in wildfires.
“It is important to understand that the respective climates of California and Israel are very similar,” notes Assaf Karavani, director of the Jewish National Fund (JNF/KKL) Israel Forestry Service.
A firefighting helicopter drops water as the Palisades Fire grows near the Mandeville Canyon neighborhood and Encino, California, January 11, 2025. (Patrick T. Fallon/AFP)
Although located on the other side of the world, California has a “Mediterranean” climate, characterized by rainy winters and hot, dry summers. Summer aridity is why the west coast state – and the Mediterranean basin – are particularly prone to recurring wildfires.
However, as the Earth’s atmosphere warmed and the summer season lengthened, increasingly destructive fires began to spread throughout the year.
“It’s not for nothing that California fires break out in January, in the middle of winter,” Karavani explains. When dry summer weather extends into the fall months, vegetation remains devoid of moisture and is therefore susceptible to fire.
-In July, the Israel Meteorological Service (IMS) released a report based on current climate trends, predicting a significant decline in the amount of rain and number of rainy days in the coming decades.
In light of last summer’s large wildfires, the Fire and Rescue Services Authority stepped up its recruitment efforts last year.
“We are recruiting firefighters, but it is not enough, we still need a lot more,” says Oz. The agency currently employs 2,165 professional firefighters, who work alongside some 3,000 volunteers.
Last year the Fire and Rescue Services Authority took on 300 new recruits, double the usual annual number of 150. New arrivals still need to undergo training. Each year, approximately 150 firefighters leave or retire.
“We have recruited a number of firefighters into the department but, of course, this is still not up to the global standard. I’m pretty cautious about saying things like that, but if we want to prepare, we need to recruit more firefighters,” Oz said.
In addition to its limited manpower, the Israeli Fire and Rescue Services lack advanced technology. According to regional officials, it is essentially a question of budget.
“It may well be that if our budget was bigger, we would be able to compete better. For now, we are doing everything we can with the means at our disposal. »
“We are trying to grow the department and we are currently in the process of inviting tenders for twelve more firefighting aircraft to add to the fourteen aircraft we already have,” he continued.
Representatives of the Fire and Rescue Services pleaded their case before the Knesset National Security Committee in October, calling for more funding to deal with the growing threat posed by climate change.
Israeli firefighters attempt to put out a fire that broke out in the Gilo neighborhood of Jerusalem on July 4, 2024. (Chaïm Goldberg/Flash90)
The meeting highlighted a multitude of deficits, both in terms of staffing and the technology available to the department.
Deputy Fire Commissioner Yair Elkayam, who heads the authority’s northern district, lamented to the commission that his region had only 115 firefighters last summer.
Furthermore, the vast majority of Israeli fire vehicles are over twenty years old.
The Fire and Rescue Services Authority’s budget was increased to NIS 1.616 billion in 2025, an increase from last year’s NIS 1.55 billion. Most of the funds will be spent on firefighters’ salaries, while around NIS 300 million will be spent on the purchase of new fire engines, aircraft and other technology.
Oz notes that the government defined the climate crisis as a threat to national security a few years ago, leading to the Fire and Rescue Services Authority being given nominal security agency status .
“Climate disruption is already here. We have seen this in recent years, both in winter and in summer. This is our great challenge as a nation. »
