Israeli firefighters said Sunday that had finally took under control a deadly wildfire that killed at least 40 people and forcing some 15,000 to leave their homes, local media reported.
Large-scale wildfires broke out near the Israeli northwestern port of Haifa, home to 250,000 people, on Thursday.
"Our news for this evening is control," a fire fighters' spokesman Boaz Rakia said on Sunday, adding the blaze is still burning in some areas.
Most of those evacuated will be allowed to return their homes soon, he said.
"From our point of view, the danger has passed for all the places that were evacuated," Rakia said. He added only in Bet Oren, a collective farming village, fire damage would prevent residents from immediately returning.
"The fire is under control," a fire chief Shimon Romah was quoted by world media.
"There are no longer any major seats of the blaze. The task now is to make sure it doesn't break out again."
Two teenage brothers were arrested on Saturday on suspicion that they caused the fire. Media said it was not arson, but negligence. The boys had choked a campfire or water pipe they had been smoking.
Russia has sent two Il-76 aircraft capable of dropping 42 tons of water in one sweep each and one Be-200 plane to Israel to extinguish the wildfires. Russia's Emergencies Ministry has also said that a Mi-26 helicopter would fly to Israel on Sunday to help extinguish the fires.
Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu has admitted that the country is not ready to fight the fires, the worst since the creation of the Israeli state in 1948, and requested Russia, as well as Greece, Cyprus, Spain and some other countries used to tackling large-scale wildfires, to provide assistance.
TEL-AVIV, December 5 (RIA Novosti)
