As Israeli families kindle Hanukkah lights, fire safety awareness is a burning issue |
On the second night of Hanukkah in the northern Israeli city of Afula, firefighters were called to the scene of a housefire after a neighbor reported flames rising from the apartment’s balcony. After the small blaze next to the family’s Hanukkah menorah was extinguished, the woman of the house told the fire officers what had happened: Her two children were playing with the burning candles while she stepped away for a few minutes.
“Fortunately, a disaster was averted here,” Israel Fire and Rescue Services said Monday night in a statement. “Do not leave menorahs unattended. Always place them in a safe, stable place and away from flammable materials.”
It was a scenario that many Israelis worry about, particularly during the Hanukkah holiday.
Fortunately, while Israelis tend to have relatively little awareness of fire safety principles compared to other countries, the country’s building codes have extremely strict fire safety requirements that make home fires much less deadly than in other Western countries, said Tiran Shemmer, chief fire prevention officer for the Israel Fire and Rescue Services.
Israel has one of the lowest rates of death from fires and burns in the world, with just 0.3 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the World Health Organization. For comparison, the ratio in the United States is more than double that. About 20 to 40 people die from injuries related to fires in Israel every year, from about 30,000 urban blazes reported annually, Shemmer said. Of these, 80% occur in residential buildings, with the remainder in factories and commercial buildings.
(Wildfires in Israeli forests and parks are a different disaster category that is generally discussed separately.)
But that doesn’t mean families can be lax with fire safety during Hanukkah, when many families light candles at home. Last year, 20 fires related to negligence with Hanukkah candles were reported in Israel, a spokesperson for the Israel Fire and Rescue Services said.
“About 80% of fires are caused by negligence,” Shemmer said. “If people were more aware of the risks surrounding candles, home fryers, heaters and other electrical appliances, it would unquestionably mean fewer fires.”
When it comes to building, Israeli construction companies rely almost exclusively on non-combustible materials that are resistant to fire, making large building blazes relatively rare, Shemmer said. Standard construction methods use reinforced concrete and cinder blocks, where wooden frames or drywall........