Haifa fire overcome but others still rage

Israeli firefighters on Friday reined in a wildfire that had spread across the country's third-largest city of Haifa and forced tens of thousands of people to flee, but continued to battle more than a dozen other fires around the country for the fourth day in a row.

Some 60,000 residents have yet to return to their homes as police and firefighting units were still heavily deployed in the Haifa area for fear that the fire could be reignited due to the rare dry, windy weather.

Though no serious injuries were caused, several dozen people were hospitalized for smoke inhalation. Hundreds of homes were damaged and in a rare move, Israel on Thursday called up military reservists to join police and firefighters and made use of firefighting aircraft sent by several countries.