Highway 6 northbound and Highway 444 near the Ben Shemen interchange were closed to traffic in both directions Wednesday afternoon after a brush fire broke out in the area. The blaze is also burning near Highway 1. Approximately 400 hikers are being evacuated from the area. Israel Fire and Rescue Services said 12 firefighting crews were battling the blaze, supported by six firefighting aircraft conducting targeted water drops to contain the flames.
As the fire intensified and conditions on the ground deteriorated, Fire and Rescue Commissioner Eyal Caspi ordered a nationwide mobilization of additional resources. Some 50 firefighting crews from districts across the country are now making their way to the area. According to Fire and Rescue Services, firefighters are battling the rapidly spreading blaze in the Ben Shemen Forest, from the Hadid cemetery eastward toward Neot Kedumim, as strong winds fuel the flames.
Members of the elite Lahava rescue unit have also been dispatched to the area to help locate hikers and escort them out of the danger zone.
Ynet reports a fast-spreading wildfire in the Ben Shemen Forest that closed highways and forced about 400 hikers out, and it sources its facts to Israel Fire and Rescue Services. The report puts the fire's spread down to strong winds alone. It never says that warming makes fire weather like this more frequent and more severe.
Leaves out the climate link
Serious
“as strong winds fuel the flames”
Why this matters
The words "as strong winds fuel the flames" are the only explanation Ynet gives for why the blaze is "rapidly spreading". The article offers no other cause anywhere.
The impression it gives
A reader comes away thinking this is a one-off fire driven by a windy afternoon, with nothing to say about the conditions that make such fires more likely.
The context
Human-caused warming has made fire weather more frequent and more severe. The article never mentions climate or warming. One short line saying so would have given the reader the full picture.
How we know
On the recordThat warming has made hot extremes, heavy rainfall, agricultural and ecological drought, fire weather and intense tropical cyclones more frequent or more severe.ipcc.ch (opens in a new tab)
Checked against the whole articleIt never uses the words “climate” and “warming”.
Firefighters are battling the rapidly spreading blaze in the Ben Shemen Forest as strong winds fuel the flames. Climate change is making fire weather like this more frequent and more severe.