Joint training drill simulates Bnei Brak fire at housing complex for disabled youth

A joint training drill simulating the response of combined emergency services to a residential building fire at a housing complex for disabled youth was conducted on Monday in Bnei Brak.

The scenario was run by United Hatzalah, fire and rescue services, the Israeli Police, the municipality, Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center and other emergency and security forces in the "Beit Yahalom" housing complex of the Aleh network for children with disabilities. It consisted of a large-scale rescue during a simulated fire that resulted in a large number of simulated casualties and involved hospital transport training.

“It is drills like these that help keep our volunteers sharp and fresh," President and Founder of United Hatzalah Eli Beer said.  "We have had too many MCIs in the past few years in Israel, and we have seen that exactly this type of training is what has made the difference between life and death for so many people in those instances. We will continue to train our volunteers together with the best of the best of Israel’s rescue organizations. I wish to thank all of our partners who made the training drill a success.”

Rabbi Yehuda Marmorstein, founder and CEO of the Aleh network, expressed gratitute to all involved in the simulation.

“I wish to thank all of the forces that participated in this drill - United Hatzalah, the Fire and Rescue Department, the Israeli Police, Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center, and in particular the dedicated staff of 'Beit Yahalom' lead by director Devorah Glauber, for carrying out a high-level and successful drill. We all hope that we will witness such events only as drills and that we won’t need to apply what was learned today in an emergency situation, but we must always prepare ourselves with professionalism to save lives in the case of a real-life emergency, and this is what we did here today," Marmorstein said.

Purpose of the drill

Brigadier Albert Monis, shift commander for the Fire and Rescue Department in Ramat Gan explained the drill's purpose.

"The purpose of the exercise was to test the response of the establishment’s staff in the event of a real fire incident and to familiarize the firefighters with the complex structure and a disabled population in order to adapt our response to similar emergencies in unusual terrain. Three fire crews and of the duty officer participated in the drill in which firefighters carried out penetrating operations and attempted to make contact with the source of the fire, which started from a bed in one of the rooms. Together with United Hatzalah EMTs, the firefighters evacuated the victims with sensitivity and cleared the smoke from the building. The Fire and Rescue Department learned a lot of operational lessons from the exercise and drew conclusions for future events. We look forward to additional collaborations in the future," Monis said.