Firefighters from the Benjamin region responded over Shabbat to two separate blazes in Modi'in Illit. The first broke out in the early morning in an apartment on Mesilat Yosef Street, where crews found a fire in one of the units and carried out extinguishing, searches for anyone trapped, and ventilation to remove heat and smoke.
A preliminary investigation found that the fire started from candles that had been lit on a refrigerator in the home. One of the family’s daughters woke up because of the fire and alerted the rest of the household, allowing everyone to escape.
The second fire erupted on Hafez Haim Street, where firefighters put out an electrical cabinet that had caught fire. Heavy smoke spread through the building, and crews ventilated the area and searched for trapped residents.
Resh Hefetz Moni Ben Zion, who commanded the incidents, said the Mesilat Yosef fire was close to becoming a disaster. “If one of the daughters had not woken up because of the fire, we would have been in a completely different event,” he said. He added that the smoke had filled the home and temperatures were very high, using the incident to stress that smoke detectors save lives by warning of a fire early and helping people escape.
