07/23/2023 04:25 (act. 07/23/2023 04:30)
Tourists flee the fire ©APA/Eurokinissi
On the Greek island of Rhodes, around 30,000 people have been rescued from a forest fire that has raged for days. More than 2,000 of them, including numerous tourists, were rescued by ships from beaches on Saturday, the Greek coastguard said. Additionally, dozens of buses were used for the evacuations. Some tourists had to go on foot because of the roads blocked by the flames.
Evacuations continued into Sunday night. “This is not a fire that will end tomorrow or the day after tomorrow,” fire department spokesman Vassilis Varthakogiannis told Skai TV. The fire in Rhodes “will make us difficult for days”.
According to the Greek broadcaster ERT, the firefighters had to seek shelter near Lardos, in the monastery of Ypseni. There they tried again to persuade the monks to leave the premises.
Regional governor Georgios Hadjimarkos told Skai TV that evacuations were complicated by road links cut by the fire. Refugee tourists, as well as some locals, were housed in gymnasiums, school buildings and hotel conference centers overnight.
According to the coast guard, more than 2,000 people were rescued by ships from the beaches of Kiotari and Lardos, in the east of the Mediterranean island, and taken to another, safer beach on the island. More than 30 private vessels were involved in this evacuation operation, led by three Coast Guard vessels.
A Greek navy ship was on its way to the disaster area to help with rescue operations, the coast guard said. Dozens of buses were also sent to rescue people. In Kiotari, the fire damaged three hotels.
Tourists had been walking to the beaches since the evacuation alert was sounded in the early morning. Video footage shows some walking with children in the scorching sun.
According to media reports, some of the tourists who have now been evacuated missed their flights from the island as the blaze cut off normal transport links. The Foreign Ministry in Athens said it had activated its crisis team to help evacuate foreign visitors.
The big fire in Rhodes lasts almost a week. It had erupted on a mountain in the center of the island. Five helicopters and about 200 firefighters were mobilized to fight the fire.
Greece is currently suffering from an extreme heat wave. Temperatures of over 44 degrees were forecast for this weekend. Numerous forest fires are currently raging in the country. According to the fire department, 46 new fires occurred in 24 hours.
Greece is just one of many countries around the world battling a prolonged period of extreme heat. In the United States, the weather service has warned about 80 million residents of temperatures of 41 degrees or higher for this weekend. More than 100 degrees has been forecast for Phoenix, Arizona, which is currently experiencing the longest heat wave since weather records began.
In Death Valley, California, 500 kilometers away, the hottest place on earth, tourists have been taking selfies with the temperature display in front of the visitor center for days. Many hope that the July 2013 global heat record of 56.7 degrees Celsius will be broken – which many experts say is due to incorrect measurement.
Disaster tourism in Death Valley poses risks to life and limb: Just days ago, a 71-year-old man from Los Angeles collapsed in front of a bathroom on a hiking trail in the national park and died.
A wildfire in Washington state destroyed more than 12,000 hectares of land in one day over the weekend. Nearly 1,000 wildfires are still raging in neighboring Canada. In Canada’s particularly intense wildfire season this year, 11.3 million hectares of land have already burned.
According to scientists, extreme weather events such as heat waves are increasing in intensity and frequency as a result of climate change.