Suspected: gas explosion in Mea Shearim – at private Gmach filling

After more than a week, the findings of the first investigation on the blast which occurred at noon on Friday on Avodat Yisrael street in Jerusalem, are published. It is suspected that the house where the explosion took place, activated a small gas cylinders filling Gemach, in an uncontrolled way.

On Friday a week and a half ago, a powerful explosion occurred in a building on Avodat Yisrael Steet of Mea Shearim neighborhood.

Many fire teams were rushed to the incident who worked in the rubble to extinguish the great fire which broke out on the scene, carried out searches to locate trapped, and prevented the fire from spreading to nearby buildings. The explosion also damaged a number of tenants moderately.

At the beginning of the incident, the commander of the Jerusalem Fire and Rescue, Eli Besson, instructed the establishment of a SIT Investigation and clarification of the circumstances of the explosion. A preliminary investigation was published the same day, increased the suspicion that it was a volume explosion of cooking gas.


Photography: Eli Schlesinger

At the beginning of the investigation led by the Head of the Jerusalem District investigations, Reshef Moshe Elazari, a suspicion was raised that there had been improper handling of LPG tanks in the apartment. At the end of the investigative actions, the conclusions are as follows:
• The apartment where the explosion happened, there was allegedly prohibited and dangerous usage of gas tanks.
• As a result of the alleged prohibited use of gas containers, there was a leak, which had accumulated in the building.
• In the aforementioned apartment, a volume explosion was formed at some point, due to the buildup of gas that has reached the limits of volatility.

The gas that leaked and began to reach volatility, met a lighter factor resulting in an explosion, which caused casualties and great damage. The investigation's conclusions were transferred to the Jerusalem District Police.

Moshe Elazari, Head of Investigations in the Jerusalem District and commander of the investigative team, noted that the gas explosion started most probably because of negligence and illegal use of LPG: "Unfortunately, we recognize in our testing and in the inspection of gas administration who shared the investigation of the gas explosion, around Jerusalem and in veteran neighborhoods particularly, a negligent use of cooking gas, many pirate gas setups, Gemach of gas cylinders, gas tanks which are inside houses and next to children's rooms."

"It is important to understand and internalize," says Commander Moshe Elazari "that cooking gas or LPG as it is professionally termed, in some situations is a powerful explosive in all respects. Just as it is unthinkable that explosives will be handled by people who are not trained for it, so too the treatment of LPG may not be done by amateurs and people who are not qualified for that."

The head of the investigation team further adds, "I ask the heads of public and rabbis, to vigorously prosecute the dangerous phenomenon of using pirated gas treatment. This phenomenon can eventually cause many casualties, and therefore must be stopped at all costs."

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!