Sarit Hatami, the niece of Avraham Baruch, the 65-year-old hearing-impaired man who perished in a fire last Thursday, was interviewed here by Reshet Bet and alleged negligent conduct that led to his death.
"It was criminal negligence from the first moment. He had no chance with the equipment that was there. Two firefighters arrived from the Arad station with a beat-up fire engine. For ten minutes he cried out and he was deaf. In a video on Twitter I saw his hand waving because he is hard of hearing," she said.
She added: "It's unbelievable that a fire brigade is being sent to Morocco, but there is no equipment and no firefighters in Arad. There is not even a ladder. They are not releasing the body to us because they want to analyze it- analyze for what? Every video shows how he died in the fire, we want to bring him to burial and then we will consider our steps."
Yadin Shetrit, an eyewitness to the fire, said: "It can't be that there is no ladder. What if there was a mother there with many children? I ask not to blame any firemen for a moment. They did everything they could."
"One firefighter was fully protected and he was the one who went up, the only problem was that he went up without a water hose. This man died in front of my eyes. It was a shocking sight, since then I have been crying all day."
The mayor of Arad, Nissan Ben-Hamu, said: "We have had fires that ended in a great miracle, this case shows us that nothing lasts forever if they do not deal with equipment that saves lives instead of dealing with nonsense."