Thirteen American firefighters, some veterans of 9/11, have arrived in Israel to assist local forces in battling the unrecognized effect of the Israeli operation in Gaza: fires caused by falling rockets.

The senior firefighters and officers arrived through the Emergency Volunteers Project, a program which trains individuals and community representatives to serve as backup emergency first responders for their Israeli counterparts.  According to Reshef Tzvika Moyal, head of Ashdod District Fire Services, they are much needed.

“These are fire fighters from the highest possible professional level,” he told Ynet news.

“There are officers, team leaders and firefighters who participated in extremely complicated rescue missions,” he explains. “We have distributed them across the stations facing the heaviest workload since the operation began and they are in the fire trucks and stations together with their Israeli counterparts, working side by side.”

The current group of volunteers hails from across the US, including Los Angeles, Texas and Washington, DC.  51-year-old Texan Billy Hearst told the news agency, “We were all part of the massive tragedy that was 9/11. There we undertook search and rescue missions. When we heard that hundreds of rockets are falling on Israel, we decided to join forces and come and help.  We cannot ignore this reality, when Israeli firefighters work hour after hour to save human life.

“The rockets fired by Hamas hit homes in Ashkelon, Sderot and other communities. We have already been at scenes in a number of such communities. Our mission is not simple, [it is] hard and exhausting, but we must help, the situation here is insufferable,” Hearst said.

These thirteen are not alone.  EVP head Adi Zehavi said last week at least 30 others were preparing to travel within the day.

“We cannot sit idly by in the US while here in Israel there is war for ten days straight,” he said at the time.  The confrontation with Gaza is now two weeks old.