Pesach preparations in the Yerushalayim neighborhood of Meah She’arim turned disastrous as two septuagenarian men were moderately injured and a building was burned down, as reported earlier this week on Matzav.com The fire was a direct result of matzoh baking gone wrong, involving an improvised blowtorch and “gas piracy,” fire inspectors have concluded.
The matzoh bakers “operated a blowtorch which they illegally and negligently connected to one of the building’s gas tanks,” stated a spokesperson for the Yerushalayim Fire and Rescue Service (JFRS).
According to the JFRS, five firefighter teams were called in on Monday after an explosion occurred in a rooftop apartment in Botei Varsha shortly before 2 p.m.
“We arrived in the early afternoon to discover the roof of a large apartment complex completely in flames,” stated Eyal Cohen, deputy head of the JFRS, who commanded the firefighting efforts that day.
“The fire was quickly skipping from apartment to apartment along the roof. Parts of the building were already collapsing and there were burning gas tanks in the complex. We feared the fire might spread to adjacent buildings,” Cohen described.
The fire was successfully extinguished after intense efforts that lasted only two hours and included over 50 firefighters and volunteers, 18 fire trucks and two fire service cranes.
Seven apartments completely burned down as a result and the rest of the complex sustained irreparable damage. Luckily, no further victims were reported save for the two men who were injured as a result of the initial explosion.
On Wednesday, the JFRS fire investigators announced that the explosion and subsequent raging fire were the result of an ill-advised attempt to mass produce matzah for Pesach by improvising a blowtorch to “pirated” gas.
The suspects allegedly used this improvised blowtorch in order to make the dishes and tools for the matzoh making process kosher for Pesach.
“As a result of the attempt to pirate gas and the dangerous improvisation the gas started leaking from the tank into the apartment until it ignited and caused the explosion,” the spokesperson explained.
{Tazpit News Agency, Matzav.com Israel}
That’s a lot of damages to pay for.
i’m the last one in the world that would defend anything the self hating govt officials do. but in this case you have to admit that a very stupid. careless, irresponsible act was done by opening an illegal dangerous matza bakery in someone’s house! all in the name of baking matzos?
they should be punished to the fullest extent. and they should be made to pay damages incurred.