Wildfire in Israel kills 40; thousands evacuated

As many as 40 people were killed Thursday in a massive wildfire that erupted Thursday near Haifa in northern Israel and showed no sign of being controlled, the Israel Defense Forces told CNN.

A bus carrying up to 50 people overturned "allegedly after the driver lost control of the vehicle because of the fire and surrounding smoke" as it was traveling between kibbutz Beit Oren and Damon Prison, the IDF website said.

It was not clear from the IDF website how many of the deaths attributed to fire occurred in the bus accident, but the newspaper Haaretz reported that all 40 of the dead were on the bus.

Inmates of the prison were evacuated to temporary jails nearby.

Earlier, authorities had said that 22 people were dead, another 25 were seriously hurt and more were missing in the blaze, which had scorched more than 750 acres in the Carmel Forest near Haifa.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office called it one of the worst fires in Israel's history and ordered the military to assist rescue and firefighting efforts.

He urged people, including the news media, to stay away from the blaze, which he called "a fire on an international scale."
Several nations, including Turkey, were sending firefighting planes, Israel's Foreign Ministry said. Relations between Turkey and Israel have been tense since last spring, when Israeli commandoes boarded a Turkish ship carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza, killing nine people.

In addition to Turkey's sending two planes, Greece was sending four, France two, Cyprus two, and one each from Croatia, Russia and Azebaijan, the ministry said.