Russian planes sent by Russia's Emergencies Ministry have dropped over 500 tons of water to extinguish deadly fires raging near Haifa in Israel, the ministry said on Sunday.
Large-scale wildfires broke out near the Israeli northwestern port of Haifa, home to 250,000 people, on Thursday, killing at least 40 people and forcing some 15,000 to leave their homes.
"In the past twenty-four hours, the planes have performed ten flights, carried out 35 water discharges and dropped 528 tons of water, with the total flight time amounting to 13 hours and 15 minutes," the ministry said.
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.
MOSCOW, December 5 (RIA Novosti)
