THOUSANDS OF TOURISTS FLEE AS WILDFIRES RAVAGE GREECE’S RHODES ISLAND

Mon 24 July 2023:

Thousands of tourists were evacuated from Rhodes island by sea as a wildfires in Greece continued to spread to settlements.

Holidaymakers were evacuated from two beaches in the island, the Kathimerini daily reported late Saturday, citing Fire Service spokesman Yannis Artopios.

Artopios said three coast guard vessels, an army lifeboat, special forces inflatables and 30 private sailboats assisted in the evacuation of tourists.

Wind gusts of up to 49km/h (30mph) were complicating efforts to bring the flames under control on Sunday.

One of the most well-liked holiday spots in Greece is the island of Rhodes, especially with British, German, and French visitors, many of whom were hurriedly evacuating themselves from the flames’ path.

Flames have been burning on the island for almost a week as Greece has been ravaged by an extended period of intense heat. After reaching 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) on Sunday in central Greece, temperatures were predicted to drop on Monday before rising again for another four days of heat.

Police said that authorities had transported some 16,000 people across land, with 3,000 evacuated by sea, and others fleeing by road or under their own transport after being told to leave the area.

Reporting from Mandra, Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker said that the biggest challenge was the wind pushing and reigniting flames across large areas of land.

“There has been a red alert across the country for days now because the risk of fires has been so high,” said Dekker.

While it will bring in empty planes to help evacuate visitors, German travel firm Tui announced it was canceling all of its inbound passenger flights to Rhodes until Tuesday.

Tui had about 40,000 tourists on Rhodes, of which 7,800 were impacted by the fires, according to spokeswoman Linda Jonczyk.

Low-cost British airline Jet2 also said that “all flights and holidays” to the island had been canceled.

Tourists and some locals spent the night in gyms, schools and hotel conference centres on the island.

The Greek foreign ministry and embassies in Greece were setting up a station at the Rhodes airport to help tourists who have lost travel documents in the scramble to evacuate.

The Greek presidency said it was cancelling a national holiday planned for Monday “in view of the extraordinary conditions prevailing in the country due to the fires”.

More than 260 firefighters, backed by 18 aircraft, were battling the fire on Sunday, with Croatia, France, Slovakia and Turkey having contributed equipment and personnel, officials said.

Last year Rhodes, which has a population of over 100,000, welcomed some 2.5 million tourist arrivals.

Greece has been struggling to put out raging wildfires, with firefighting planes from many countries, including Turkiye, arriving to help extinguish the flames that burned houses and destroyed the environment.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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