Firefighters took control Thursday evening of a fire that broke out in an apartment in the city of Beitar Illit.
Reshef Avi Ben Saadon, the shift commander, said, "Upon arriving at the scene and understanding that it was a fire on one of the lower floors of the building, I ordered the building's occupants to lock themselves in their homes. The firefighters who entered the apartment identified a burning sofa in the living room of the house, the firefighters worked to extinguish the sofa before the fire spread to other parts of the house and also acted on the scene to search for trapped people and release heat and smoke."
Sgt. Shimon Elmkies, an investigator at the Yehuda Regional Fire Station, said the suspicion is that children playing with incendiary material such as matches caused the fire,
"Unfortunately, 'children's games' in fire often cause a meeting of property and unfortunately even damage to human life. We must take great care to keep every incendiary element out of their reach. They are children. Also, make sure to install 'smoke detectors' in the house. The smoke detector warns of the outbreak of the fire and allows us to escape from the house and save us and our loved ones," Elmkies said.
He noted that in recent weeks there has been an increase in the number of apartment fires as a result of people using heating to a greater extent in response to the cold weather and asked the public to use safe heating sources such as air conditioners and radiators and avoid using portable heaters of all kinds.