Israel's Highway 1 eastbound was, briefly, entirely blocked off to traffic near the Shoresh Interchange outside Jerusalem on Monday after a vehicle went up in flames.
Emergency responders, including the Israel Fire and Rescue Authority, arrived on the scene shortly after it began. No injuries were reported.
Firefighters received a call at 10:46 a.m. on Monday morning about a fire on the highway, and dispatched four teams from the Beit Shemesh area to the scene. They immediately began working to extinguish the fire to prevent it from spreading to the woods nearby.
During the initial stages of putting out the fire, all traffic was blocked. Soon afterward, however, police were able to open up one lane to traffic. At 12 p.m., Israel National Roads Company announced that the highway was fully opened to traffic, although the area is very congested.
This comes as the Israel Meteorological Service forecasts a record-high heatwave and strong, dry winds for this weekend, peaking at 47°C in the Galilee region and posing a high risk for wildfires.
Agencies collaborate on real-time fire identification, location
The recent increase in extreme weather and global warming has led to a significant rise in the scale and intensity of forest fires. Rapidly spreading fires endanger human life, communities, infrastructure, and open areas, presenting a growing challenge for emergency response agencies who strive to detect fire outbreaks early on.
In response to the crisis, the National Security Ministry, the Israel Innovation Authority, IAI, Technion, and the Fire and Rescue Authority collaborated on devising a solution for identifying and locating fires in real time, within minutes of its ignition.
According to the IAI, the core challenge lies in sustaining an up-to-date operational picture in real time and reacting swiftly as a fire spreads, especially across vast, remote, or hard-to-access terrain.
The system leverages spectral algorithms for image analysis, AI for real-time data analysis, anomaly detection, locating of fire source, and extraction of the fire’s precise location, even from high altitudes. Alongside advanced scanning, the drone transmits immediate alerts to the Fire and Rescue Authority’s command center.
Ariel Moskowitz contributed to this report.