The police received reports early Sunday morning of a number of vehicles burning in the parking lot of a residential building on Shloush Ha-Sata Street in Bnei Brak.
Police officers from the Bnei Brak Municipal Police Unit quickly arrived at the scene and began searching, during which they noticed a suspect fleeing on foot. The officers attempted to make contact and, after a foot chase, arrested the suspect.
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The suspect - a minor - was transferred for questioning at the Bnei Brak police station, and this evening the Bat Yam Juvenile Court extended his detention for an additional three days.
The investigation continues.
Rescue volunteer Shimon Braverman, who lives in the building where the fire occurred, got out of the emergency vehicle he had on standby to provide medical assistance to his neighbors - but discovered that his emergency vehicle was on fire.
The emergency vehicle, which is used for immediate response and rapid arrival at complex scenes, was completely burned along with several other vehicles - including one of the neighboring vehicles, which was the target of the deliberate arson.
Inside the 'rescue' vehicle, the emergency equipment used by drivers in jumps and life-saving incidents was also completely burned.
The rapid response emergency vehicle is equipped with extensive medical equipment similar to an ambulance, and allows for rapid treatment of a large number of casualties and their preparation for evacuation by ambulance. In recent weeks, the rapid response emergency vehicle was among the first to arrive at crash sites in the Gush Dan area.
Hatzla CEO, Rabbi Yaakov Yosef: "The immediate response vehicle has been operating for about a year and a half, enabling night and Shabbat watchmen to provide a quick and professional response to residents of the city and the region at all hours of the day. In recent times, in light of the events, the emergency vehicle has been used extensively to assist in emergencies, and at the beginning of the war, it was deployed to the south of the country and provided extensive medical assistance as well as in response to falls in the Dan Bloc region, particularly in the cities of Bnei Brak, Givatayim and Tel Aviv.".
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Dan District Fire and Rescue reported that at 04:35, several reports of a fire were received in a residential building on Three Hours Street. Initial reports from citizens were of smoke in the building's stairwell.
Two teams arrived at the scene and identified that it was a fire involving several vehicles in the parking lot - and smoke was surrounding the building and the stairwell.
Additional teams from the district stations were immediately dispatched to the scene, while the teams at the scene began initial firefighting operations and an initial search of the building to locate any casualties or trapped people.
The shift commander instructed the residents via the public address system to lock themselves in their apartments in a smoke-free room and not to open the apartment's main door or try to go out to the stairwell.
The crews continued firefighting operations while a large fire load was present, as several vehicles were involved in the fire, as well as the apartment storage rooms adjacent to the parking lot, as well as the gas chamber.
The fire also spread upward and the facades of the apartments burned. Thanks to the resourcefulness of the firefighters, who also operated through an external attack, the spread of the fire into the apartments was prevented.
The incident caused extensive property damage.
According to the findings of the investigation, the cause of the fire is criminal arson.
