2010 Mount Carmel forest fire
The Mount Carmel Forest Fire (Hebrew: אסון הכרמל "Ason HaKarmel", "The Carmel Disaster") was a deadly forest fire that started on Mount Carmel in northern Israel, just south of Haifa. The fire began at about 11:00 local time on 2 December 2010, and spread quickly, consuming much of the Mediterranean forest covering the region. With a death toll of 44, it was the deadliest civil disaster in Israeli history, until the 2021 Meron stampede that killed at least 45. They included 36 Israel Prison Service members, most of them new recruits, as well as three senior police officers, among them the chief of Haifa's police, and three firefighters, among them a 16-year-old volunteer. More than 17,000 people were evacuated, including several villages in the vicinity of the fire, and there was considerable property and environmental damage.