Panker, Hagai

Hagai, son of Batsheva Pingela and Shalom Panker, was born in 1979 in Yerucham. Shortly after his discharge from the IDF, Hagai enlisted in the Israel Prison Service following his older brother, Moshe, who served in the Prisons Service for several years. On 25 Kislev, December 2, 2010, a forest fire broke out on Mount Caramel, known as the Carmel Disaster, the largest in the country’s history. Due to grave concern for human life, it was decided to evacuate prisoners from Damon Prison and Carmel Prison. The bus moved between ancient quarries and Beit Oren, followed by police cars. The fire broke through the walls of the bus, huge walls of fire blocked the traffic artery, seized everything, and forty-four men and women perished, thirty-seven of them officers of the Prisons Service Officers and course commanders, Hagai among them. He was thirty-one years old when he fell, and was buried in the military cemetery in Yerucham. He was survived by his wife and daughter.