A 14-year-old boy from Usfiya was arrested on Monday after he admitted to accidentally starting the massive forest fire in the Carmel region outside of Haifi, Israel.
During his interrogation, the boy confessed that he was smoking a Hookah pipe and threw a piece of burning charcoal into the forest on Thursday morning, which immediately burst into flames, according to the Haaretz newspaper.
The teen became frightened after seeing the blaze grow, and he "ran back to his school [in Usfiya], and did not report the fire to anyone," said police, according to the Jerusalem Post news agency.
Police have linked this incident to the Carmel wildfire, which became Israel’s biggest and most destructive forest fire ever, ruining a great part of the Carmel area in only three days. On Monday, two brothers aged 14 and 16 who were suspected of the starting the fire were released by the Haifa District Court.
