An out of control grass fire swept the Jewish cemetery in Berdychiv, blackening part of the sprawling area but, sources in Ukraine told JHE, apparently only dry grass burned and the granite matzevot were not seriously damaged. Firefighters called by the Berdichev Jewish community extinguished the blaze, they said.
They said that the March 5 fire had most likely been started either by a local person illegally burning grass, or by someone tossing a cigarette butt while walking on the path through the cemetery. Much of the cemetery is covered by dry grass and weeds.
This video, posted on YouTube by local media, shows the extent of the blaze. The caption and accompanying news report stress that unauthorised burning of dry grass and bushes is illegal and subject to fines or even imprisonment.
The cemetery, the city’s New Jewish Cemetery, was established in the late 18th century and includes around 5,000 graves, among them the Ohel of Rebbe Levi Yitzchok. (The site of city’s Old Jewish Cemetery, obliterated in Soviet times, is now a park.)