Miracle in Mesilat Zion: First-hand account how an Israeli village was spared from record-breaking wildfire

Grace Alon woke up last Wednesday morning to a Middle Eastern “hamsin” with hot dry air blasting through the window like an oven. Characterized by strong winds and extreme high temperatures, the hamsin conditions were ripe for the fastest spreading fire in Israel’s history.

In an interview with ALL ISRAEL NEWS, Alon praised the swift and courageous actions of the firefighters and authorities, but also shared how several miracles meant that her entire village of Mesilat Zion was miraculously saved.

Just after midday, she noticed the smoke and checked her messages. The fire was in a nearby forest. “It started in Tarom and then the wind just took it northeast and Mesilat Zion was directly in the line of the fire,” explained Alon. Initially it was thought that the fire would spread at a slower pace. “Now we know that the winds were so strong that the flames were traveling eight meters per second, which is a new record for any spread of fire in Israel.” 

“A few hours later, a neighbor knocked on my door, saying we needed to leave right then.” They were given the order to evacuate. “I grabbed our go bag and a few other items and rushed to my car. My husband (who) was at work and my two older kids at school were all safe, but I had to get my youngest son from the kindergarten,” she said. 

“By the time I arrived,  the head of the village committee, Or Eliyahu, was there.” It was the quick thinking and swift reaction of Eliyahu, it turns out, that helped save the day. The fact that he was working from home that day turned out to be extremely providential.

When Alon arrived at the kindergarten, she was asked to take three other young children with her to safety. Mercifully, the car-full of toddlers didn’t object to being escorted by a stranger. “They were silently trusting, feeling the urgency of the situation” says Alon, who sang to keep them entertained, and to keep herself calm as she drove. “As I rounded a corner, I saw a huge column of fire in the forest just past the houses ahead of me.” 

“Remembering the wind, I realized with terror what little time we may have before the fire arrived,” she added. 

The village entrance was blocked with evacuees trying to get out and parents trying to get in to rescue their children. Together with fire trucks that were now arriving, it could have been chaos. However, Or Eliyahu was there to help. ”He was directing everyone, answering questions, making decisions, doing a thousand things, showing incredible leadership.” 

The toddlers were reunited with their parents, and Alon went to find her two other children. “As I drove, fire blazed on both sides of the road. My heart raced, wondering if the road may be blocked further along, but I had no choice. I had to keep going,” she recalls. “Focus on the road. I said to myself, just get to the kids.” 

When she got to the school, Alon saw a neighbor with his head in his hands. “I realized that he was right,” she said. “There was little chance of the village making it out of this fire undamaged.”

Bracing herself for the worst, she told her children solemnly, “It’s possible the fire may take our house, but the most important thing is that we are all safe, and no matter what happens, we can trust God with everything.” However, her eldest son suggested that they should pray, so they prayed: “God, nothing is impossible for you. We are asking you to save every house in the village.” Remarkably, that prayer was answered, along with many others that were going up as the news of the fire spread.

Alon's husband, Yoav, told her that a man decided to enter the village to help. He drove to the last street, and saw a woman coming out of a house and shouting "I have four babies inside!" He rescued them all just in time as shortly after, the fire arrived at the edge of the village right next to her house.

On hearing the story, Alon remembered that she had felt prompted to go pray in that very place several weeks previously. She had been praying Psalm 91 for protection, and that God would turn the enemy back at the gates. 

“I walked up through the blackened forest that was still smoking up to the point where I'd prayed. I stood there and looked backwards. Everything behind me was black and burned but everything in front of me, which was the village, had been spared,” she recounted.

More than that, another believing couple had felt led to live there in the forest of Jerusalem, and had been praying for protection against fires for fifteen years. As news of the fire went out spurring many more prayers, the firefighters arrived and the strong hot wind suddenly dropped, enabling them to bring the fire under control.

Alon gives great credit to the Israeli authorities and services, especially Eliyahu. “As soon as he heard in the morning that there was a fire in Tarom, he jumped in his car and drove over there to assess the situation. He looked at how fast the fire was spreading and drove back to give the order to evacuate, and it wasn't a moment too soon because we really did have just minutes to spare.”

“He saw the fire, he made the decision, he gave the order to evacuate. He came back and he drove straight to my son's gan [kindergarten] and physically loaded all the kids into the back of his truck.” 

Alon’s four year old said later that they all did what they were told and how they had seen the flames. The children were praised for listening to the instructions and staying calm. “You were giborim! [heroes]’” they were told. “So now they're all super proud of themselves because they're giborim. They’re little heroes,” said Alon.

Alon explained that Eliyahu only works from home on Wednesdays. “If it hadn't been a Wednesday, we don’t want to think about what would have happened,” she said.

“Several hours later we heard that the fire was under control and miraculously only one house had a tiny bit of damage to its roof,” said Alon. “Other than that, nothing else has been touched apart from the view to the forest.”

“We’ve lost 10,000 dunams,” said Fire and Rescue Commissioner Eyal Caspi, “but not a single home burned and no civilians were harmed,” according to Ynet News.