Video clips from the scene show white ash covering roads in the area, and fire crews battling numerous brush fires, glimpsed through thick drifting smoke.

Israeli rescue workers are on their way to deal with a massive forest fire in the Carmel Forest near the Israeli northern city of Haifa Dec. 2, 2010. At least 40 people are dead in what officials describe as a historic "firestorm" that broke out early Thursday in the Carmel mountain range overlooking the city. [JINI/Xinhua]

"We're praying for a miracle for the wounded," Israel President Shimon Peres said of the still-developing event early Thursday evening while attending a Hanukkah candle lighting ceremony.

Eyal Caspi, commanding officer of the Herzliya, Ramat HaSharon and Kfar Shmaryahu Fire and Rescue Stations told Xinhua that he was en route with two trucks. Crews arrived from other parts of the country to bolster local forces.

So far, at least seven square km of highly flammable pine forests and brush have gone up in flames, foresters told local media.

Some 40 fire crews are battling the spreading flames, as six crop dusters deployed to the area are trying to wet down the area with repeated water drops from above, local media reported earlier in the afternoon.

Fire officials say they don't expect to be able to douse the flames until morning. A major coastal road was closed due to advancing flames at around six p.m. local time (1600 GMT).

Haifa Fire Service spokesman Hezi Levi told Ynet that the wind is making it harder for the firefighters to control the blaze, saying "the wind is confusing the firefighters and making it very difficult for them."