Spontaneous combustion? -- A palm in flames

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WET is the City Daily Photo topic for today's Theme Day.
We have not much rain and no bodies of water here in my corner of Israel's Negev desert.
But the other day, a hot dry chamsin day, our town suddenly saw a lot of water--not from the sky but from fire hoses!
The crown of a palm tree suddenly burst into flames.
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION?!  It is a known phenomenon especially in palms.

Soon the whole trunk and the hedge were burning.
Our Meitar Bitachon/Security team (bless them!) were on the scene quickly and rolled out their hoses.

The police and Fire Department arrived too.

Two firemen suited up and went to work.

At the end, our local hoses had themselves to be hosed down to clean the black soot off them.

The now leafless and blackened dead palm will hopefully be cut down soon.
That's a scary thing, trees suddenly bursting into flame for no good reason.
I hope never to see such a thing again.
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See Palm Trees as Fire Hazards, a useful page of advice, photos, and a video link by a California fire department.
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Remembering

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Cut down, burned. 
But following the conflagration, all around, tiny green pine saplings push their way out through the ash and grow toward the sun.
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Today marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
It is also International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
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More posts about the Shoah can be found here.
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Eucalyptus emergency

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Blackened earth and the acrid smell of ash!
What happened to our eucalyptus grove down in the wadi??
Our beloved nature place where the grandkids and I used to have adventures! 

I found this brush fire putter-outer lying on the ground and stood it up next to a eucalyptus that had lost its bark to the fire.
This is a common emergency tool in Israel, just a wooden stick and a piece of rubber, primitive but effective.
What's it called in English, anyway?

Only the tree and bush skeletons were left in part of the grove.
I wonder how the fire started.
Maybe from a falling rocket, but the local authorities didn't want to tell us?
"Keep calm" is the watchword these days, after all. 

OK, keep calm, Dina, and forget that this wadi is just two blocks from my house.
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(Linking to ABC Wednesday E Day)
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The Fire Next Time

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May the individual flames of prayer eventually overcome the mob's fires of destruction.
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A virtual memorial candle and a place to express condolences for the four Americans killed last night in Libya:
https://www.facebook.com/U.S.EmbassyTelAvivIsrael?ref=ts
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After the fire, peace

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For Robert's weekly PsalmChallenge at Daily Athens blog, here is Psalm 29.
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Quite often I use Rabbi Benjamin J. Segal's translations.
Much is to be learned from his essay on each psalm.
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Many of the word images in Psalm 29 touch me especially deep today, as the memorial ceremonies are taking place in Israel's military cemeteries. We remember our 2,691 soldiers killed when Egypt and Syria attacked us by surprise on Yom Kippur, 1973. Now, 38 years later, their sons and daughters and even grandchildren stand at the graveside.
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1. A psalm. Of David.
Ascribe to the LORD, O sons of gods, ascribe to the LORD glory and might.

2. Ascribe to the LORD the glory of His name; bow down to the LORD in the majesty of holiness.


3. The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD, over multitudinous waters.


4. The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is majestic.
5. The voice of the LORD breaks cedars; the LORD breaks apart the cedars of Lebanon.
6. He makes them skip like a calf, Lebanon and Sirion, like a young wild ox.

(Enlarge the photo to appreciate the flames.)

7. The voice of the LORD forks as flames of fire.

8. The voice of the LORD convulses the wilderness; the LORD convulses the wilderness of Kadesh.

9. The voice of the LORD causes deer to calve and lays bare forests, while in His temple, everything says "Glory!"
10. The LORD sat enthroned at the Flood; the LORD sits enthroned, king forever.

11. May the LORD grant might to His people; may the LORD bless His people with peace.
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א מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד הָבוּ לַיהוָה בְּנֵי אֵלִים הָבוּ לַיהוָה כָּבוֹד וָעֹז

ב הָבוּ לַיהוָה כְּבוֹד שְׁמוֹ הִשְׁתַּחֲווּ לַיהוָה בְּהַדְרַת-קֹדֶשׁ

ג קוֹל יְהוָה עַל-הַמָּיִם אֵל-הַכָּבוֹד הִרְעִים יְהוָה עַל-מַיִם רַבִּים

ד קוֹל-יְהוָה בַּכֹּחַ קוֹל יְהוָה בֶּהָדָר

ה קוֹל יְהוָה שֹׁבֵר אֲרָזִים וַיְשַׁבֵּר יְהוָה אֶת-אַרְזֵי הַלְּבָנוֹן

ו וַיַּרְקִידֵם כְּמוֹ-עֵגֶל לְבָנוֹן וְשִׂרְיֹן כְּמוֹ בֶן-רְאֵמִים

ז קוֹל-יְהוָה חֹצֵב לַהֲבוֹת אֵשׁ

ח קוֹל יְהוָה יָחִיל מִדְבָּר יָחִיל יְהוָה מִדְבַּר קָדֵשׁ

ט קוֹל יְהוָה יְחוֹלֵל אַיָּלוֹת וַיֶּחֱשֹׂף יְעָרוֹת

וּבְהֵיכָלוֹ כֻּלּוֹ אֹמֵר כָּבוֹד

י יְהוָה לַמַּבּוּל יָשָׁב וַיֵּשֶׁב יְהוָה מֶלֶךְ לְעוֹלָם

יא יְהוָה עֹז לְעַמּוֹ יִתֵּן יְהוָה יְבָרֵךְ אֶת-עַמּוֹ בַשָּׁלוֹם

Photos are of the 2009 fire on our local monastery's grounds.
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Rain helps end the fire

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In the week since last That's My World Tuesday Israel has been through trying times.
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We are mourning the loss of 42 men and women in the service of their country; all burned because a bus was engulfed just after the forest fire started on Thursday.
Some 250 housing units burned either totally or partially.
50,000 dunams (12,500 acres) of the Mt. Carmel forest, 5 million trees, were on fire.

Photo: Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson

The good part is that many nations came to Israel's aid.
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In the photo, in orange and blue, are just some of the fire fighting aircraft crews that came from ten countries.
Israeli pilots accompanied them in every sortie over the flames.
In 82 hours the fire was stopped.
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Yesterday and today 4 Israel Air Force bases held ceremonies for the departure of the international teams. IAF medals were presented to 192 foreign crewmen, and all the delegations received a certificate of gratitude from the commander of the IAF.
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But before leaving, they were taken around the country to visit the holy places.
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The water-dropping planes that Turkey graciously sent us flew up to Lebanon to battle the fires that are burning the majestic cedars.

The other good news is that for the first time in 8 months RAIN started falling all over Israel last night! Just in time to cool down the smouldering ground in the Carmel range.

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Above you see the welcome clouds over Jerusalem at 4:18 pm today, as seen from my village.

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The Boston Globe has incredible images of our fire online today, including the airplanes.

WARNING: On Photo 6 they give you a choice whether to open it; please PLEASE skip that difficult one.

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Thank God it is over.

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And he sang as he watched and waited 'til his billy boiled

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Waiting and waiting for the watched pot to boil . . .

Is it true, that old proverb? -- "A watched pot never boils."
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The first day of every month is City Daily Photo theme day. Today our theme is WAITING. Some 1,102 bloggers belong to CDP.
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