‘Thank You’ from Israel to the United States Firefighters

In late November 1600 people lost their homes due to a series of fires started by arsonists in Haifa. The Israeli Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan issued a thank you from Israel to the United States firefighters who gave up their Thanksgiving holiday to help fight these fires.

Due to the aid of foreign firefighters and planes from Russia, Turkey, Greece, France, Spain, and the United States no lives were lost in these fires. Egypt, Jordan, Italy, and the Palestinian Authority also contributed vehicles and personnel.

According to The Tower, dozens of American firefighters and emergency personnel left behind their jobs and families to go to Israel as part of the Emergency Volunteers Project (EVP), a network of around 950 volunteer and professional first-responders. Though only a few members are Jewish, they all share a love of Israel.

Retired firefighter Billy Hirth, a Protestant from Texas, organized his group’s efforts from Jerusalem. “We’re just firefighters. When guys hear about a situation like this one, where the Israelis are working as hard as they can, they want to come help,” Hirth told the JTA. “It’s a brotherhood. Firemen are firemen.”

“Because most of the Americans were trained in Israel, they are familiar with how we operate, and they were able to easily relieve some of the burden on the crews, whether with regular fire response in local districts or in extinguishing the remaining wildfires,” Israel Fire and Rescue Authority spokesperson Oren Shishitzky explained to JTA. “I cannot emphasize enough our appreciation that these guys dropped everything around the Thanksgiving holiday to come here.”