Anger and plea for aid as Israel admits it lacks means to contain killer blaze

Firefighting teams from around the world tried to help contain the disaster, which has highlighted a lack of preparedness despite Israel having the region's most formidable army.

Helicopters and planes from several nations flew back and forth to the Mediterranean, scooping up sea water and dumping it on the fire. Turkish aircraft scattered white powdery material over the smoking hills, where banana and cypress trees were burning.

The blaze has scorched more than 7,000 acres of land and destroyed houses, while killing at least 42 people. Twelve thousand others have been evacuated, according to authorities. "We saw the flames and smoke and it was really, really frightening," said Faris Shtayeh, a father of three, speaking at a facility for evacuees in Haifa. "The children were crying and afraid but we calmed them. We ran from the house after we collected clothes for the kids and some food, but I have no idea what is happening with our house."

Israel has no firefighting planes and is having to rely heavily on foreign countries to provide them. Britain has provided two helicopters, one stationed in Cyprus and already in Israel for a training exercise, according to the British embassy in Tel Aviv.

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was candid about his country's lack of preparedness. He said: "Israel has never prepared itself in any form for such a need. It was never taken into account. We have to stop the fire. It can only be done with aircraft and we don't have any other means. We need to bring in more planes."

Mr Netanyahu said that Greece, Cyprus, Britain, Jordan, Bulgaria and Russia had all answered Israeli calls for help, while Turkey, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Spain, Croatia and France had also offered contributions.

He singled out Turkey for special thanks, and said he hoped the co-operation would lead to an improvement in relations that cooled after Israel's Gaza offensive two years ago.

The fatalities were prison service trainees whose bus was engulfed in flames on Thursday as they headed to a prison to evacuate about 500 prisoners. Mr Netanyahu visited a firefighter being treated for smoke inhalation yesterday at Haifa's Rambam Hospital. The firefighter, Raviv Hoffman, told him equipment was inadequate. "Our vehicle is 18 years old and had a hard time making the climb in the hilly terrain," he said.

With the country's resources focused on the military, fire brigades have been undermanned and underfunded for years, with pleas for new equipment falling on deaf ears.

The sense of helplessness sparked outrage among Israelis.

Aluf Benn, a columnist for the Haaretz daily, said the country's inability to control the flames proved it was not ready for a massive attack against it from the likes of Iran. He compared the fire to the fiasco of 1973, when Israel was caught off guard by a surprise military attack from Egypt and Syria.

Maariv columnist Ben Caspit noted that a country that carries out complex military operations is also the country "whose fire trucks date back to the previous century, and that therefore finds itself caught, standing before the flames, with its pants down."