Israeli President Shimon Peres received employees of the Russian
Emergency Situations Ministry on Monday at his Jerusalem residence and thanked them for taking part in the biggest forest fire in Israeli history, RIA Novosti reports.
The fire raged for more than three days outside the city of Haifa and
was put out on Monday night with the assistance of firemen from 24
countries, including Russia and Azerbaijan.
The fire killed 42 people, forced 17,000 people to leave their homes,
burned 5,000 hectares of forest and destroyed or damaged 250 houses.
The overall damage amounts to tens of millions of dollars.
