“During the evening shift, we got an alert and we left to tackle a fire at a house in the north. One firefighter was driving the fire truck and I was sitting next to him, getting things ready, wondering how we would operate the truck when it’s just the two of us. How would we deploy the hoses? How will we attach them to the pump and run into the burning house? We needed backup from another team. It was an almost impossible mission. It was very hard to get the blaze under control and, at the same time, to search for people who might be trapped inside. Luckily, there weren’t any. The incident ended with the property being severely damaged.” (A firefighter from northern Israel in conversation with Shomrim).

During the sweltering summer months, and with a war that has no apparent end date still raging on every front, the acute shortage of firefighters in Israel is more evident than ever. Every day, firefighters have to deal with endless blazes, mainly in northern Israel and mainly caused by rocket and drone attacks from Lebanon, accompanied by interceptor missiles launched by the IDF’s aerial defense systems. This shortage, coupled with the fact that firefighters are on continuous high alert across several regions, means that residents and volunteers are also required to play a part in efforts to tackle the blazes that threaten their homes and properties. Just last month, for example, MK Yitzhak Kroizer (Otzma Yehudit), was photographed helping firefighters extinguish a blaze on Moshav Natur on the Golan Heights, where he lives.

However, without the proper equipment and professional expertise, these volunteer efforts provide little real benefit. And what about the state's response? It has awakened to the problem alarmingly late. In July, a decision was made to equip rapid response teams in northern communities with vehicles capable of towing massive water tanks. Yet, this is too little, too late—and more importantly, it doesn't address the root of the problem. The National Security Ministry responded by stating that budgets have been increased and more positions have been allocated—the full response appears below—but even if this is true, years of neglect have left the issue far from resolved.

Nobody should be surprised by this situation, however. The crisis that Israel’s firefighting service is facing has been going on for years and has been the subject of several reports by the Knesset, as well as a particularly harsh report from the state comptroller in 2021. The data revealed in that report – which, needless to say, was published long before the challenges created by October 7 and the subsequent war on several fronts – leaves little room for doubt. According to the report, in an average year, the Israel Fire and Rescue Services handles more than 40,000 fires. The year the report was published, however, there were just 1,650 firefighters in Israel – around half the number that the Fire and Rescue Commission says is optimal for a country Israel’s size. According to more recent figures, the number of firefighters has increased since then – to around 1,900 – but that is still far short of the required number.

"In the end, the firefighters arrived, but it took a long time – several hours, in fact. If they had come sooner, we might have been able to rescue some of our belongings."

‘The hoses melted in our hands’

The war, and especially the fires that, according to the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, have consumed at least 136,000 dunams (around 136 square kilometers) of land in the Upper Galilee and the Golan Heights, have highlighted how severe the crisis is. “There was a fire nearby that threatened us, our home and the neighbor’s home, too,” one resident of Kadita tells Shomrim. “We started to try and put out the fire using garden hoses, but they melted in our hands. In the end, the firefighters arrived, but it took a long time – several hours, in fact. If they had come sooner, we might have been able to rescue some of our belongings. Several generators were destroyed, along with special fruit trees, solar panels, batteries and other things.”

One of the solutions that the Israel Fire and Rescue Services tried to implement to tackle the problem was simply to cut, in certain cases, the number of firefighters it sends to each incident from three to two. “In cases where two firefighters were sent to do the job instead of three, it was impossible to function properly and to do what a firefighter is expected to do,” says one firefighter with more than eight years of experience. “The regulations stipulate that at least two firefighters must burst into a burning building. The third firefighter is supposed to remain by the fire truck and operate it, while the fourth one provides auxiliary support. Or if a firefighter collapses inside a burning building; if that happens, there has to be a third crew member on hand to go in and get him out. At the moment, we are being called out to a lot of fires in the north, especially forest fires and homes that have caught fire. We are supposed to save lives. We cannot effectively do that with just two firefighters.”

“As the commander of a substation, I have a 20-year-old fire truck at my disposal,” says one Israel Fire and Rescue Services officer. “I am responsible for a large area. Sometimes, that entails driving for more than half an hour, depending on where the incident is. There have been cases when it took us 50 minutes to reach the scene of the blaze. This is a far-from-ideal situation. Moreover, there is a severe shortage of firefighters at the station. We go out to tackle blazes with just two crew members. That’s not enough to function properly. Israel does everything differently from the rest of the world,” he adds, referring to the roles allocated to the various crew members, such as the pump operator and the firefighter responsible for entering burning buildings.

“The bare minimum is three firefighters in each crew,” says Maj. Gen. (ret.) Shahar Ayalon, who served as commissioner of the Fire and Rescue Services from 2011 to 2016. “During my tenure, there was never less than that. It’s vital for the crew to function properly. In fact, the cabin of the fire truck is suitable for five firefighters.”

“As the commander of a substation, I have a 20-year-old fire truck at my disposal,” says one Israel Fire and Rescue Services officer. “I am responsible for a large area. There have been cases when it took us 50 minutes to reach the scene of the blaze."

Israel lacks dozens of fire stations

Another substantial problem that also stems, in part at least, from the lack of personnel is the national coverage of firefighting services. According to Ayalon, in order for the firefighting service to provide optimal coverage across the country, the state needs to build at least 24 new fire stations, in addition to the 125 that currently exist.

A similar figure – in fact, three more than Ayalon’s estimate – was cited in a report by the Knesset’s Research and Information Center in July 2023. That report was written at the request of the National Security Committee. According to the reference case scenario presented in the report – which was published before the additional challenges created by the war – Israel needs a total of 250 fire stations in order to ensure that it can respond to emergency calls anywhere in the country in a reasonable time. According to the same scenario, Israel needs 3,300 firefighters in order to provide optimal service – but, in practice, there are just 2,400 positions available, of which 20 percent are unfilled.

As of last summer, the Israel Fire and Rescue Services employed 1,906 people – around 500 firefighters fewer than the number of positions that exist. The largest gap between the optimal number of firefighters and the actual number is in the south – 31 percent. Rather sadly and ironically, the northern district, where there have been constant fires since October 7, “enjoyed” the narrowest gap between optimal and actual numbers of firefighters: 12 percent. Here are the full figures.

‘The salary sucks and there’s no insurance coverage’

Why is there such a significant shortage of firefighters? According to sources within the Israel Fire and Rescue Services, the primary reason for the many unfilled positions is the low pay. For instance, firefighters with two or three years of experience told Shomrim that their gross monthly salary is around 11,000 shekels (approximately $2,665). While this might seem like a reasonable salary—especially when compared to that of police officers or prison wardens—firefighters clarify that this pay is for 240 hours of work per month. A firefighter's shift lasts 24 hours, during which they must remain at the fire station at all times, followed by 48 hours of rest. This salary also includes emergency calls, duty rosters, and daily risks to life and limb. In Israel, a job is considered full-time if the employee works 182 hours per month.

Another problem, according to the firefighters themselves, is that their salaries do not increase significantly as they gain more experience. “I have been a firefighter for seven years and I earn 13,000 shekels for an average of 240 hours a month,” one of them tells Shomrim. Another firefighter, who also has several years of experience, showed Shomrim his salary slip, in which it was noted that he had worked 276 hours that month – the equivalent of almost a job and a half. He earned 19,000 shekels before taxes. In an interview last year, Avi Ankori, the chair of the firefighters’ union, claimed that, as a result of trying working conditions and a meager salary, at least 200 firefighters quit their jobs between 2018 and 2023. “I am not talking about firefighters who retired. I am referring to experienced employees, firefighters who did their best to save lives who took voluntary redundancy because salaries suck and there was no insurance coverage,” he said.