Saved by Google

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NASA's satellite photo shows the smoke from the Carmel fires drifting out over the blue Mediterranean.
Thankfully, today, for the first time since Thursday we have more smoke than flame.
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A year ago I took this photo of flame retardant being released over our neighborhood monastery when their forest caught fire.
It shows you what kind of firefighting equipment the great state of Israel has--small agricultural cropdusters doing double duty!
What's more, in normal times these Chem-Nir planes do not stand at the ready; it takes at least 2 1/2 hours to get them airborne.
If not for the generous sending of help from neighbor countries and from Europe and America, we would be in big trouble right now. See the impressive list of aircraft that has arrived in the last few days here.
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This morning the world's largest firefighting aircraft landed at Ben-Gurion Airport.
The Evergreen Boeing Supertanker--see it being welcomed here!
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I watched the live coverage of its first sortie at 11 o'clock and it was very scary.
A huge aircraft flying over hills and around high tension wires and dropping its load of 80 tons of water plus chemicals just 300 feet above the ground!
All the other 34 aircraft in action were kept clear of the path of the huge Boeing.
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People in buildings in the area were told to shut the windows and turn on the airconditioners (IF they are not outward-facing) because this anti-fire material is dangerous to one's health.
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And how did we come to know about the existence of the Evergreen Supertanker?
Someone in our aircraft industry remembered hearing about it once.
They Googled Evergreen, found the company in Arizona, called, got PM Netanyahu's OK to pay the gigantic rental fees, and the deal was sealed in 15 minutes.
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I ask you, is this the way to run a country??
Does our safety depend on Google and the good will of foreign countries?
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