About four hundred people, including many children, were left homeless in one of San Jose’s poor neighborhoods in Costa Rica following a huge fire that erupted there.

The fire consumed about fifty housing units, most of them dilapidated buildings and shacks. The Israeli embassy in Costa Rica, together with Cadena – the Jewish community rescue organization, came together to assist and initiated an impromptu evacuation tent and an auxiliary water machine developed by the Israeli firm Watergen. The revolutionary device produces water from the air. 

Deputy Mayor of San Jose Paula Vargas thanked the Israeli ambassador to Costa Rica, Amir Ofek, for the rapid response and “generosity that has always characterized the Jewish people.”

Israel, and in particular the IDF, is often the very first on the scene to provide aid when disaster strikes anywhere in the world, as Israel Today has often reported.