Dovid Helman, a Crown Heights resident, has a yearly custom: he travels back to his home country of Israel for Lag B’Omer.
This year was no different. However, something unexpected awaited him.
“When I landed at 7 am on Monday, my brother called me,” Helman told COL. “He said: something happened, but don’t worry. Mother is OK.”
Helman was in the air while the home of his mother, Leah Helman, in the Israeli village of Kfar Chabad was on fire.
A volunteer crew saw flashes of light and rushed to the house. “There were strong winds which spread the flames,” Yoel Belinko, a COL photographer who is in charge of security in the village, said.
He saw Mrs. Helman screaming at the entrance of her home. “She was holding linen, and was standing there, helpless. My friend Eli Rivkin helped her.”
Waiting for the fire department – a 25 minute wait – the two continued to wake up neighbors. “There was a threat to their lives.”
From an initial investigation, it seems that the fire broke out from a tree that fell on an electric pole.
Dovid Helman, surveying the now house he grew up in, now a shell, said: “Now we have to see what we’re going to do.”
The fire
The aftermath
terribble!!!
This is soo sad!!
For the Fire Department to come??? Is that normal?
What a mess. Are they insured? BH no one was hurt.