Soldiers’ Miraculous Fire Escape

By COLlive reporter

This past Shabbos morning, an apartment attached to Chayal el Chayal, an organization located in Jerusalem’s Nachlaot area that caters to lone soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, caught fire.

Miraculously no one was harmed.

The smoke from the blaze next door poured at 4:30 AM into the lone soldiers’ home and made it impossible to breathe. First to wake up was lone soldier Shalom C. from Minnesota. He quickly woke the other soldiers sleeping in the room, and they started trying to get out through the smoke that had by now filled the house.

“We couldn’t see a foot in front of us,” one of them said.

Meanwhile, the soldiers in the other rooms woke up from the smoke and the screaming and made their way out of the house into the cold Jerusalem night, with nothing but the clothes they had on their backs.

As they scrambled around outside in a daze, one of the boys, Avi D. from Far Rockaway, NY, who is in middle of the drafting process, remembered that there was a couple that had joined them for Shabbos and was staying on the top floor.

Without thinking he ran back into the smoke filled house and made his way up two flights to their room to wake them and help them get out of the house to safety. It was an open miracle, friends later remarked.

Although the firemen took over forty five minutes to arrive and there were flames reaching the gas lines in the walls of Chayal el Chayal, everyone made it out safe and sound and the fire was controlled before any serious damage to the lone soldier home occurred.

Only a few hours later, with the smell of the smoke slowly subsiding, Mordy Botnick, the 23 year old founder and Director of Chayal el Chayal, and some of the staff were able to clear things up enough to host the Shabbos day meal for over fifty lone soldiers.

Although hours before they had just been saved from catastrophe, lone soldiers flocked to the home, from all corners of Jerusalem, to enjoy a delicious, home cooked Shabbos meal filled with singing and warmth and a real Shabbos atmosphere.

Only a day after Shabbos, after hours of scrubbing, a lot of the smoke has been cleared. Besides for the window that was pried open by the firemen and the few areas that still need to be cleaned, Chayal el Chayal has returned back to its regular routine. The home continues to bustle with lone soldiers who come at any time of day or night to grab a bite, do their laundry, get some inspiration and make new friends.

“We are really grateful for the open miracle that has come our way and are making sure we have the proper equipment to handle an emergency if G-d forbid it happens again. We are doing our utmost to care for the safety and well being of anyone who walks through our doors,” said Mordy Botnick and Ari Abramowitz, co-directors of Chayal el Chayal.

To see more about Chayal el Chayal and to make a contribution, please visit their website at www.lonesoldierhome.org