jerusalem | The worst forest fire in Israel’s history produced a new hero for the country: a police chief hailed for her bravery and self-sacrifice in rushing into the flames to accompany rescuers.
Haifa Police Chief Ahuva Tomer, Israel’s top policewoman, died from her wounds Dec. 6, four days after her patrol car was engulfed by flames just minutes after she was interviewed on national TV.
The incident proved to be one of the iconic scenes of the fire coverage, as it brought back images of a bygone era when leaders were seen as selfless heroes.
“Her last moment, when her car touched the fire, she looked out at us,” Israeli President Shimon Peres said in a eulogy for Tomer. “That’s a moment none of us will forget … a high point in her bravery.”
Tomer, 53, was following a bus of prison guards on their way to evacuate prisoners from a jail Dec. 2 when her car and the bus were engulfed by the flames. Minutes later, Israeli media reported, a desperate Tomer radioed to say she was on fire. Thirty-seven people on the bus were killed.
Throughout the weekend, newscasts carried frequent updates on her condition and images of her final interview. Her death dominated newscasts throughout the day.
Several thousand people attended her Dec. 6 funeral in Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, where she had been police chief since last year. Colleagues praised her leadership and friends said that Tomer devoted herself to the police force.
“I lived with Ahuva for 20 years, but I lived on the sidelines, because her first love was the Israeli police,” Danny Rosen, Tomer’s longtime partner, said at Rambam Hospital, where she was treated.
In interviews given minutes before she was injured, Tomer appeared unsettled but determined, her sunglasses perched atop her brown cropped hair.
She spoke of the pain of seeing the forest burn and, nodding ruefully, added, “It’s heartbreaking. It looks like it will last a long time.” She then drove off toward the fire zone.
Israeli TV played the video clips repeatedly throughout the day.
Tomer, who was born in the Soviet Union and came to Israel as a toddler, was a 30-year veteran of the police force and was seen as a groundbreaker for female police officers.
She was named chief of Haifa’s police station, Israel’s largest, in 2009, becoming the first woman to hold the position. She was the most senior female field officer in the police and was promoted posthumously to brigadier-general. Her deputy was also a woman, a rarity in the force.
In 1999, Tomer was investigated on charges of fraud, but after a five-year inquiry, a court concluded that prosecutors had wrongly accused her, and she returned to the force.
Israeli channels interrupted regular programming to show her funeral live. Uniformed police carried her flag-draped coffin. A long procession of attendees laid wreaths on the grave.
“Even after she was injured, she proved how much of a leader she is in her soul,” Israeli police commissioner David Cohen said. “She didn’t leave us until she knew the fire was put out.”