Israeli comptroller: Fire services inadequate

Israel's government watchdog said Wednesday the country's fire fighting services are woefully inadequate, in a report he prepared even before an inferno destroyed much of Israel's largest forest last week.

The report released Wednesday by Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss pointed to shortages in firefighting manpower, equipment and stations that will take nearly $200 million to fix. He accused the government of "foot dragging" and "ongoing failure" to address repeated warnings.

Directors of Israel's firefighting services have complained for years that their crews are still using equipment that dates to the middle of the last century.

The report indicated that all the obstacles were in place to make it impossible for Israel's existing firefighting forces to control the weekend blaze in the Carmel forest in northern Israel. The fire burned out of control for four days, killed 42 people and was extinguished only after firefighting aircraft from as far away as the U.S. came in to bring it under control.

Israel's government has come under scathing criticism for the failure to put out the fire when it was small. Instead, it burned millions of trees, destroyed houses, a nature reserve and reached the outskirts of Haifa, Israel's third-largest city, on the Mediterranean coast.

Israel does not have a single firefighting aircraft of its own.