A fire which caused the deaths of eight soldiers and serious injuries to seven others in an artillery corps camp in the West Bank last month was caused by a lighted candle left unattended by one of the men sleeping in the barracks, according to an IDF military police investigation, whose findings have just been released.
The investigation found that one of the 45 soldiers housed in the prefabricated hut had placed a lighted candle on a shelf and had then left the building at about I a.m., when all the others were asleep.
The candle apparently set fire to a towel, and the flames spread almost instantly throughout the structure. Soldiers in the camp were not able to quench the fierce blaze and the hut burned to the ground. Some of the sleeping soldiers are believed to have been asphyxiated by fumes which prevented them from escaping through the doors at either end of the long building.
The soldier who used the candle against all regulations — apparently because there was a power failure at the time — is to be charged with negligence, disobeying orders and possibly with more serious offences, in a court martial to be held this week.
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