The State Comptroller's report published today (Sunday 2/12/18) on the day when the huge fire broke out in Carmel 8 years ago, on the subject of the local authorities' preparations for fires and the wave of fires that occurred in November 2016, paints a grim picture that the local authorities, including Haifa and the emergency bodies, did not apply the full lessons from the previous fires.
The local authorities that were inspected, the Municipality of Haifa, the Zichron Ya'akov Regional Council, the Asher headquarters, and the Yehuda headquarters and the emergency bodies - the National Emergency Authority (NAHA), the Home Front Command, the Israel Police and the Fire Authority - did not fully apply the lessons learned from the previous emergency incidents and did not correct all the deficiencies that were brought up in previous audit reports of the State Comptroller's Office, regarding their cooperation with the emergency and rescue agencies in the country - including deficiencies brought up in the report on the fire in Carmel in 2010 which was published in 2012, and the report on the preparedness of local authorities for fires and unusual weather hazards that was published in 2015.
The state auditor's office notes, Because in the current reality it will be difficult for the relevant bodies to respond to the foreseeable tangible danger to human life and property. The continued procrastination and shifting of responsibility between all the aforementioned parties is particularly serious in view of the fact that additional large-scale fires that will endanger settlements are expected to occur sooner or later and "the writing is on the wall".
The audit findings detailed in an extensive and comprehensive report raise deficiencies, some of which are serious, in the preparation of the local authorities for fires and their functioning during the wave of fires. In this audit, the process of compensation for the damages and costs to the economy was examined for the first time, and deficiencies were found in the compensation process of the local authorities for the damages and costs caused by the wave of fires, which were estimated at 647 million NIS at the very least.
The report points to deficiencies in four main issues:
The series: The regulations and rules regarding the protection of settlements against forest fires, which were formulated back in 2014, have not yet been approved, in the absence of agreements between the relevant government ministries. The continued delay in approving the regulations and rules creates an intolerable situation, in which the fire authority cannot instruct the local authorities how to prepare to prevent fires in their area, monitor the implementation of its instructions and enforce them.
Preparation: Substantial deficiencies were found in the preparedness of the local authorities that were tested for large-scale fires. Among other things, they did not prepare plans to create a perimeter protection shell against fires. Some of them did not prepare buffer zones and escape routes and did not practice their emergency formations for fire scenarios.
functioning: Deficiencies were found in the functioning of some of the local authorities that were inspected during the wave of fires, and these concerned, among other things, the conduct of their operating centers, the lack of information about special populations that need assistance and the evacuation of some educational institutions.
Compensation: The compensation fund at the Israel Tax Authority has not formulated a policy and procedure regarding compensation for the damages to the forest and grove. Due to disagreements between the Haifa Municipality and the Zichron Ya'akov local council and the compensation fund, the process of clarifying their claims has not yet been completed. The compensation fund rejected the claim of the Mate Yehuda Regional Council, because it did not provide it with the references it demanded.
The government ministries, bodies and local authorities should address the shortcomings raised as soon as possible in order to be optimally prepared already for the summer of 2019
The report states that the government ministries concerned, the emergency agencies, the tax authority and the local authorities must study the findings of the report and act decisively, each body within its area of responsibility, to promote preparedness for civil emergencies and to quickly and efficiently deal with similar and even more serious incidents in the future. They must address the shortcomings raised as soon as possible in this report and the previous reports to be optimally prepared already for the summer of 2019.
The wave of fires in November 2016, the most severe in the country's virgin lands, returned and flooded the deficiencies that were raised in previous reports and remained in place, without being corrected. He also put back on the agenda the issue of civil emergencies, which encompasses, among other things, the preparation and preparedness of the local authorities for these events, the actions to minimize their damage and the treatment of the population when they occur.
The Office of the State Comptroller alternately examined aspects of the fire prevention preparations of the Haifa Municipality, the Zichron Ya'akov local council and the Meta Binyamin and Meta Yehuda regional councils and their conduct during the wave of fires. Financial aspects of the wave of fires were also examined - examining the damages caused during it; the costs of dealing with it and its effects; And examining the process in which the state gave the inspected local authorities, government offices and other bodies compensation for the damages they suffered. The inspection included monitoring the correction of the deficiencies raised in the report on the fire in Carmel and in the report on preparing for fires and weather hazards. Also, the regulation on fire safety in high-rise buildings was examined.
The main deficiencies found:
The normative infrastructure for the preparation of local authorities for fires
The existing normative infrastructure did not authorize any body to enforce the local authorities to follow instructions regarding the preparation for emergency events and regarding their handling when they occur. Also, a uniform, binding and objective measure for the level of preparedness of the local authorities for the various emergency situations has not yet been determined. This is despite the State Comptroller's comments on these issues in the report on preparing for fires and weather hazards.
There are no height data for all high-rise buildings in Israel, among others in the city of Haifa
The regulations of the National Fire and Rescue Authority (protection of localities against forest fires), 2014-2014, and the rules of the National Fire and Rescue Authority (protection of localities against forest fires), XNUMX-XNUMX, have not yet been brought to the Knesset's Interior and Environmental Protection Committee for approval. Since the relevant government ministries were unable to reach agreements on the budgetary source for their implementation.
High-rise buildings may, during a fire, be a source of danger to the point of being a "death trap" for the residents who live in them. The existing normative infrastructure requires the installation of fire detection and fire extinguishing systems in high-rise buildings, and does not establish provisions regarding their proper inspection and maintenance. The geographic information system of the Fire Authority does not have height data for all high-rise buildings in Israel, among others in the city of Haifa.
Nine neighborhoods in the city of Haifa have only one road for the entry and exit of vehicles
Preparation of local authorities for fires
Failure to prepare a fire protection plan: The local authorities examined, which are at risk of being harmed by fires due to their proximity to the forest and grove, did not prepare a plan to create a protection envelope against fires, despite the great importance of the preparation required of them in order to reduce the damage caused by fires.
Failure to train buffer zones: The Zichron Ya'akov local council and settlements in the Mata Binyamin and Mata Yehuda regional councils, some of which are in the heart of a forest, did not prepare buffer zones to protect against them until the wave of fires. This left their residents and their property exposed to danger and damage during the wave of fires.
Failure to train escape routes: Nine neighborhoods in the city of Haifa have only one road for the entry and exit of vehicles, or the existing entrances and exits in them lead to the same main axis; Each of the Beit Meir and Netaf settlements in the Mate Yehuda Regional Council has one access road, and it is used as the only escape route from the settlement during an evacuation. The aforementioned situation was one of the reasons for the delay in the evacuation of residents and endangered their lives.
Lack of adequate water infrastructure: In the Carmel Ridge in Haifa, in Halamish in the Meta Binyamin Regional Council and in Netaf in the Meta Yehuda Regional Council, the volume of the existing water pool does not provide a sufficient solution for extinguishing fires on a large scale.
Non-practice of fire emergency plans: The Zichron Ya'akov local council and the Mate Yehuda regional council did not themselves investigate the practice of their emergency formations before the wave of fires and did not draw lessons from it.
The Fire Authority did not conduct drills for the Zichron Ya'akov local council and the Mate Yehuda regional council to deal with fires on a large scale; The police did not initiate joint exercises with the local authorities that were inspected, with the fire authority and with the other emergency agencies in order to ensure that during a civil emergency the various agencies will be familiar with the work of the unified police and their work will be done in coordination and cooperation.
The functioning of local authorities during the wave of fires
Non-declaration of a mass disaster event: During the wave of fires, most of the entities that dealt with it operated in an emergency mode, but no mass disaster event or other emergency situation was declared, and it was not found that there was an orderly discussion regarding the need for such a declaration.
Deficiencies in the conduct of the operating centers: An operation center is the place where the emergency headquarters of the local authority operates and from which it manages its affairs during emergencies. The operation center of the municipality of Haifa did not function as required in the first hours of the fire in the city: it did not receive continuous information from the unified CPC and the municipal CPC, and it did not have a complete picture of what was happening in the areas of the fires; In the operation center of the Zichron Ya'akov local council and the headquarters of the Mate Yehuda regional council, an event diary was not kept as required, and all the residents' inquiries and issues that were dealt with during the fires were not recorded and documented in an orderly procedure; And against them, the control center in the Mata Binyamin Regional Council acted as required.
Lack of transit permits: During the wave of fires, there were no movement permits for those in essential positions in the Haifa municipality, in the Zichron Ya'akov local council, in the Mate Yehuda regional council and in the settlements affected in its area. Because of this, the police delayed their arrival and some of them even prevented access to the areas of the fires, therefore their ability to perform their duties was impaired.
Deficiencies in population evacuation: During the wave of fires in Haifa, most of the residents evacuated on their own, and some of them needed the assistance of the security forces and the municipality. In addition to the commitment of the municipality and the effort it made to assist in the evacuation operations, it emerged that the operation center did not have information on which roads were blocked and in which places it was necessary to assist in the evacuation; The municipality did not map the institutions where special populations live, which may need special help in evacuation, and therefore did not alert the rescue forces in real time; The municipality's plan to allocate means of transportation for the evacuation was unsuccessful, and out of the ten buses it ordered for the purpose of evacuation, only one bus arrived in the area of the fire due to the heavy traffic congestion and the blocked roads; In the Mate Yehuda Regional Council, three localities were evacuated not according to its evacuation procedure. The council did not investigate this matter and did not draw lessons from the eviction process.
Deficiencies in the evacuation of educational institutions: The evacuation of the "Romma Nigonim" school in Haifa was conducted without the supervision of the municipality, and a group of students and teachers remained near the center of the fire without the escort of a representative of the municipality, even though it determined that there was a need for such escort; The evacuation of the students from the "Hhoresh" school in Zichron Ya'akov was not carried out in accordance with the instructions of the Ministry of Education's circular: the school did not register the students who were collected by their parents, and students were transferred to buses without management, control, registration and monitoring.
The compensation process for the injured and the costs to the economy
compensation by the compensation fund: The Director of the Tax Authority stated that 11 of the fires that broke out in the wave of fires are recognized as acts of hostility, and the victims were compensated for the damage caused as a result of them by the authority's compensation fund. By the end of May 2018, the fund had completed handling the vast majority (about 97%) of the lawsuit cases, and had paid the victims of the wave of fires about 260 million NIS. The bulk of the compensation payments totaled about 180 million NIS (about 69% ) were paid to the injured from the Haifa area.
The Tax Authority has not established a policy regarding compensation for damage to the forest and grove, even though it was required for this issue in the past, and this led to ambiguity, delayed the settlement of claims and prevented the transfer of funds to the injured. It was only in October 2017 (after the wave of fires) that the Tax Authority began formulating a policy on compensation for damage to the forest and grove, but has not yet anchored it in the procedure and has not published it to the public.
The claim and compensation process for local authorities reviewed: The compensation fund did not instruct the municipality of Haifa, the Zichron Ya'akov local council and the Mate Yehuda regional council ahead of time regarding the compensable and non-compensable damages, the claim process, the compensation calculation method and the references that must be attached to the claims. This is in order for her to be able to decide on them efficiently and quickly; The fund did not present to the Haifa municipality its opinion including a calculation regarding the cost necessary to return the situation to its original state in the compensated areas, and conditioned this on the approval of a compromise outline that it proposed to the municipality.
The procedure for clarifying the claim between the Mata Binyamin Regional Council and the compensation fund was orderly, and this contributed to a quick approval of the compensations; The municipality of Haifa, the Zichron Ya'akov local council and the Mate Yehuda regional council did not prepare as required to submit the claims to the compensation fund; The Mate Yehuda Regional Council sued the compensation fund but did not produce original receipts for the restoration of the damage. Since her claim was dismissed, she did not even file an appeal against the dismissal of the claim.
Assistance by the Ministry of the Interior: The Ministry of the Interior did not establish basic criteria for recognizing expenses as "urgent and immediate" for the purpose of determining compensation for the eligible authorities. The ministry approved compensation in the total amount of NIS 15 million to the eligible authorities without giving reasons for the amount of compensation it approved for each of them.
Assisted by the Estates Committee: The estates committee did not make sure that the local authorities that were inspected informed their residents of their decision to help those damaged by the wave of fires; The Municipality of Haifa and the local council Zikhron Ya'akov did not inform their residents of their right to submit an application for assistance from the Estates Committee and did not allow them to do so through them.
The main recommendations
The Ministry of Defense through the Ministry of Defense, in coordination with the Ministry of Internal Security, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of the Interior, must determine one state entity that will be entrusted with the preparation of the local authorities for civil emergencies and their handling when they occur, and define its areas of responsibility and powers; The Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the emergency administration must establish as soon as possible a binding and objective measure of the level of preparedness of local authorities for emergencies, including civil emergencies.
The Ministry of Internal Security must work with the relevant government ministries to resolve the ongoing disagreements regarding the budgetary source for carrying out operations to protect settlements from forest fires, so that the regulations and rules on the subject are approved as soon as possible.
The local authorities must transfer to the fire authority as soon as possible and without delay data on the height of high-rise buildings in their area, and the fire authority must verify the receipt of the data; The Ministry of Internal Security must act urgently and decisively to approve the regulations for regulating the maintenance and inspection of fire safety and rescue arrangements in high-rise buildings.
The Municipality of Haifa and the local council Zikhron Ya'akov must prepare, each on its own, a fire protection plan; The regional councils of Meta Binyamin and Meta Yehuda must act to prepare a defense plan, each for the protected localities within its area; The local authorities must each prepare buffer zones in their area for the purpose of slowing down the progress of fires. All this according to the professional guidelines published by the Fire Authority.
The Municipality of Haifa must continue to work with the Ministry of Transportation and Road Safety (hereinafter - the Ministry of Transportation) and the relevant planning bodies for the preparation of additional access roads for all the neighborhoods confined within its area.
The police must initiate joint exercises with the fire authority, the local authorities and other emergency bodies and practice working in a unified police force in order to ensure that during a civil emergency the various bodies will be familiar with their work and will act in coordination and cooperation.
The Municipality of Haifa, the Zichron Ya'akov Local Council, and the Mate Yehuda Regional Council must ensure that during an emergency, information is routinely passed between the Unified CPC and the authority's operation center; maintain a log of events as required; document the decisions made at the operation center and the public's inquiries and the responses given to them.
The Municipality of Haifa must complete with the Ministry of Transportation and the Regional Police, and in coordination with the police, the work of the headquarters to prepare an applicable plan for mobilizing means of transportation that will assist it during an emergency event in evacuating the population and evacuating institutions under its responsibility; the local authorities must have an up-to-date mapping of institutions and places where special populations live, which may need help with evacuation, in order to alert them in advance of the rescue forces and coordinate evacuations.
The local authorities, in cooperation with the emergency administration, should consider opening temporary accommodation centers during civil emergencies limited in scope, as the Haifa municipality did, and not use reception centers. This is, among other things, in order not to disturb the study routine in the schools that serve as reception centers.
The Ministry of Education, in coordination with the local authorities, must prepare for a scenario in which it is necessary to evacuate students from an educational institution located in a fire zone and practice this scenario in the educational institutions; The Municipality of Haifa and the local council Zikhron Ya'akov should draw lessons from the evacuation of some of the educational institutions in their area during the wave of fires.
The Tax Authority must establish a policy and procedure regarding the entitlement of injured parties to compensation for damage to the forest and grove, publish them to the public, act on them and, if necessary, initiate legislative changes based on them.
The Municipality of Haifa and the local council Zikhron Ya'akov must submit to the compensation fund documents, references and well-founded damage assessments in order to reach an agreement with the compensation fund as soon as possible on the amount of compensation they will receive. This is with the aim of speeding up the rehabilitation works for the well-being of their residents; The compensation fund and the aforementioned local authorities must act in cooperation to end the claim and compensation process for the sake of the residents and their well-being.
The Ministry of the Interior must establish basic criteria for recognizing expenses as "urgent and immediate" for the purpose of determining compensation for local authorities that will be recognized by its emergency administration as entitled to assistance, and justify the amount of compensation that will be approved for each of them.
A member of the Haifa City Council, Yaron Hano, of the Haifa Green Movement, who himself prepared a report and sent it to the emergency bodies, gave a live response: "This is one of the most urgent issues for the municipality to deal with in the coming years. God forbid the next incident will be much more serious and it may occur both within Haifa neighborhoods and in the Bay area, Nahas and Shalom. There is no adequate preparation to date, even far from it."
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