The Jerusalem Post
By YAAKOV LAPPIN
12/06/2010 17:52
A 14-year-old resident of Usfiya was arrested on Monday on suspicion of hurling a charcoal from a water-pipe into a forest clearing near Usfiya on Thursday morning, witnessing the ignition of a large fire, and fleeing the scene. Police suspect the boy's actions directly led to the Carmel forest inferno.
The youth confessed to the suspicions against him and reenacted his alleged actions on Monday, police added.
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After witnessing the flames grow out of control, the youth became panicked, "ran back to his school [in Usfiya], and did not report the fire to anyone," police said.
The youth will appear before the Magistrate's Court on Tuesday morning for a remand hearing.
Hof police spokesman Mor Inbar told The Jerusalem Post that four additional Usfiya youths were questioned in recent days in connection with the water-pipe incident.
They included two brothers aged 16 and 14 who were arrested on Sunday, and who were released by the Haifa District Court on Monday after Judge Avraham Elikim accepted an appeal by attorneys representing the brothers against a decision by the Haifa Magistrate's Court to keep them in custody until Wednesday.
Judge Elikim noted that police suspect the minors of causing death through criminal negligence, but added that the suspects' young age represented an alleviating factor in the suspicions against them. "There is no disputing the trauma caused by the fires to many people, but we should not place a national disaster on the shoulders of two minors," Judge Elikim said during his decision on Monday.
Two additional minors were detained for questioning - though not arrested - by officers from the Hof police sub-district's central unit on Monday and released, before the 14-year-old suspect was arrested.
Meanwhile, Police Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said a total of four suspects around the country have been arrested in recent days on suspicion of deliberately setting off smaller fires. Two suspects were arrested in the Jerusalem area and two more were arrested in on suspicion of arson attacks.
Rosenfeld said "over 20 smaller fires around the country" that broke out since Thursday were suspected acts of arson. All of the smaller fires were put out by firefighters and did not cause injury.
A day after the last of the dead from the Prisons Service members who were burned to death in their bus near Kibbutz Bet Oren were buried, police said a full examination was underway to determine what could be learned from the tragedy. However, a police source added that no decision had yet been made about an investigations committee.
According to police, the bus, driven by 48-year-old David Navon - who was posthumously recruited into the Prison Service on Monday - attempted to turn around on the narrow single-lane highway connecting Bet Oren Junction to , after screeching to a halt in front of a wall of fire.
As the flames engulfed the vehicle from both directions, desperate IPS staff members attempted to flee the bus, and ran straight into the flames. The bus was accompanied by police cars containing Lior Boker, Itzik Melina, and Haifa police chief Ahuva Tomer, all whom died of burns related injuries.
Parents of two victims from the Prison Service - Roee Biton and Hagai Jerno, came forward on Monday to accuse the authorities of failing to prepare staff members with sending them on a mission to evacuate the Damon prison without means to defend themselves against a fire.
The families told Ynet said they did not blame the IPS for the tragedy, but rather "those who were responsible for putting out the fires, evacuating homes, and closing off roads."
A police source added, "Obviously, this tragedy will be examined from all directions, from the intelligence to the operational level. Lessons will be learned. An incident of this scale cannot go by without being examined in detail."
