Wildfire engulfs hills above Haifa in Israel, killing 42

A major forest fire killed at least 40 people in northern Israel on Thursday, including prison guard cadets trapped in a bus while heading to evacuate inmates, officials said.                                           
 

Hundreds of firemen, scores of fire trucks and airforce water cannon rushed to the scene in the Carmel hills above the Mediterranean port of Haifa to battle the blaze which raged in strong winds, devouring the wooded slopes.                
 

More than 12,000 people were evacuated from towns and villages as the fires threatened hillside homes. Firefighters said it was the biggest forest fire in the country's history, with some 7,000 acres (2,800 hectares) of land destroyed.     
 

A collective farm in the forest, Kibbutz Beit Oren, was razed. A gutted bus and car that carried the prison guards were all that was left of their prison evacuation mission.                                           

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on a visit to the scene by helicopter Israel had suffered a "disaster on a scale we have never seen before".                                           
 

"We are harnessing all the forces of the state to deal with this disaster and rescue those who are injured and to stop the fire," he added.                        
 

Patients were rushed out of a psychiatric hospital on the hillside at Tarit Carmel, as sparks flew through the air, igniting trees and tinder-dry brush on the slope above its roofs.