For the sixth day in a row, firefighters battled on Sunday to put it out Fire on the Greek island of Rhodes stranded thousands of tourists and locals, forcing many to spend the night in hotel lobbies, gyms, schools or boats moored at the port.
Greek authorities say no serious injuries have been reported so far, although nine people have been briefly hospitalized, most with breathing problems. Some visitors described the chaotic rescue effort and criticized the tour operators for bringing them to the island despite the raging fires.
Helen Tonks, a British tourist, said in a phone call that she accompanied her husband and three children to a “living nightmare” on the island on Saturday night. The hotel she booked was evacuated, she said, and they spent the night at a school has been turned into a crisis center.
During the night, coast guard ships moved thousands of people from fire-threatening coastal areas to safer areas of the island. Television footage showed long lines of people, including many children, walking to safety under orange skies, and crowds standing on the beach in the dark as officers helped them board lifeboats. Other images show hundreds of people lounging on mattresses in the gym as volunteers distribute water.
According to Ioannis Artopios, a spokesman for the Greek fire service, about 19,000 people – locals and tourists, many of them Britons – were moved from the fires on the island on Saturday night. Firefighters’ resources were stretched further on Sunday after a bridge collapsed in western Greece, in the city of Patras. Authorities said at least one person died and eight others were hospitalized in that disaster, while firefighters continued to search for debris.
In Rhodes, Paul Kalburgi, a British playwright and screenwriter who was vacationing on the island with his family, said he was evacuated from three hotels on Saturday. The first time he and his family left the hotel with a wet towel on their heads, he said, fearing for his life. After the third evacuation, they spent the night in the hotel lobby, watching flames in the distance, he added.
“The fire looks scary in the dark,” Kalburgi wrote in a text message to a New York Times reporter late Saturday. On Sunday morning, he said, staff at the hotel where they were staying had told him the roads were clear, but there were no cars or taxis and so there was no practical way to get to the island’s airport.
“It feels completely helpless. Where is the help? Nobody knows anything,” Kalburgi noted. He said he hopes to leave the island on Sunday night after he has booked his plane ticket. “We’ll get through to the airport,” he added.
Robert Sladden, an actor who arrived in Rhodes from London with her husband on Friday, says they’ve only followed one instinct since the blaze began threatening their resort: “Stay away from the fire – hitchhike, walk or catch the bus.”
Mr Sladden said he could feel the heat from the flames even as they walked along the coastal road with thousands of others trying to escape the blaze. They stopped at a hotel, intending to spend the night there, he added, but the fire quickly threatened that shelter, and they were forced to continue.
Several other tourists have described similar harrowing experiences and outlined what they said were mostly futile attempts to get advice from the tour companies that brought them to the island.
On Sunday, British airline and tour operator Jet2 said it had canceled flights arrival in Rhodes is expected next Sunday. Another UK operator, Tui, said it had also canceled flights to Rhodes for the next few days, adding that the company was doing all it could to support customers on the island.
The Greek Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that it would establish a help desk at Rhodes International Airport to facilitate travelers who may lose their passports during the evacuation.
Simon Warne, a British tourist who arrived in Rhodes on Thursday for a wedding, said he spent Saturday night at a school on the island. Like others, he praised the kindness of local residents and volunteers during the chaotic, scary situation.
“Special mention to the locals even though they brought us food, drinks, towels at 4am,” I wrote on Twitter, adding that “some wonderful lady drove us 50km back to our hotel and didn’t take any money, no matter how hard we tried”.
Tonks described a similar experience. “The locals are amazing,” she said. “It is so humbling.”
Artopios, a spokesman for the fire department, told Greek television that efforts to extinguish the fires, which are burning on three fronts on the island and exacerbated by strong winds, continued on Sunday. He added that planes dropped water to put out fires and firefighters worked through the night to protect residential areas, noting that the relocation operation was the largest ever in Greece.
The Rhodes wildfires are among hundreds of wildfires that have broken out across Greece over the past week, caused by dry conditions as heatwaves swept the country. Other countries across Southern Europe have also struggling with baking conditions and severe weather, with some areas matching or breaking temperature records, while others are experiencing intense storms.
Temperatures were set to reach 113 degrees Fahrenheit, about 45 degrees Celsius, in central Greece on Sunday, prompting authorities to close the Acropolis and other ancient sites.
Emma Bubola Contribution reports from London.
