Last update - 00:00 18/05/2007
Firefighters battle blaze at munitions warehouse in Nazareth
By Associated Press
A fire raged out of control in an Israel Military Industries warehouse in northern Israel on Friday, burning up tons of munitions, but causing no injuries or risk to the surrounding area, police said. Later in the afternoon, firefighters were able to establish control over the blaze and are working towards extinguishing it.
The ordinance at the state-run facility in Nazareth was defective and slated to be destroyed, police spokesman Gary Eliav said. Friday is not a regular working day at the facility, and no injuries were reported.
Eliav had no immediate information on how many tons of munitions were at the warehouse or how the fire started.
Firefighters were forced temporarily to stop fighting the blaze because of the possible hazard the exploding ammunition posed to firefighters, another police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld said. But he said there was no danger whatsoever that the fire would spread to other parts of the town and said the blaze was contained specifically to that warehouse.
The small number of workers at the warehouse on Friday were evacuated safely, Rosenfeld said.