The fire has raged for the sixth day across the south-east of the major tourist island, while tens of thousands of people have been evacuated and authorities fear the blazes will go uncontained for “several days”.
Six days of blast furnace and “the largest evacuation operation ever carried out in Greece,” the Greek authorities emphasized on Sunday. The day before, tens of thousands of residents and tourists had been evacuated from boats on the island of Rhodes in the face of the large fires that are devastating the island. Supported by around fifty trucks, ten Canadairs and eight helicopters, more than 250 firefighters continued to battle the blazes on Sunday, fanned by winds of up to 50 km/h.
Hundreds of tourists, many of them French, German and British, were still waiting for a flight home at Rhodes International Airport on Sunday evening, while several airlines suspended their flights to the island. About 30,000 people had to leave their homes or hotels because of the fire in the east of this island in the Dodecanese archipelago of 100,000 people on Saturday as the tourist season is in full swing. According to the police, around 19,000 people were evacuated from the island as a precaution, 16,000 of them by land and 3,000 by sea. They had been housed in gyms, schools or conference centers for the night.
A total of 12 towns were evacuated, including Lindos, one of the island’s main tourist attractions with its hilltop Acropolis. “Everything went well. Everyone, especially the tourists, followed our order,” said police spokeswoman Konstantia Dimoglidou. The fire started in a mountain in central Rhodes and its front stretched nine kilometers from the center to the east of the island.
More than thirty boats took part in the operation. Three came from the Coast Guard, the rest were private boats – a ship from the Hellenic Navy was also heading to the area.
Warned by SMS, the tourists fled to the beach with suitcases and children, some unable to reach their airline and missing their flights. Three ferries have been requisitioned at Rhodes port to accommodate the rescued people, Greek agency ANA reported, while dozens of buses have been chartered to assist with evacuations, Rhodes Municipality official Teris Hatziioannou said.
According to Deputy Fire Chief Yannis Artapoios, the blaze is the most serious blaze firefighters in Rhodes have ever faced. The flames reached the village of Laerma in the center of Rhodes in the night from Saturday to Sunday, houses and a church were devastated despite the firewalls built by the authorities. Many hotels were also affected and the fire spread to the coastal villages of Kiotari and Gennadi Lardos.
As of Sunday night, blazes continued to ravage the island but also the rest of Greece, which is suffering from an historic heatwave and has seen 46 new hot spots recorded in 24 hours. In Athens, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has set up a crisis unit to facilitate the repatriation of foreign tourists.
The world’s leading tourism operator TUI and the British company JeT2 suspended their tourist flights to Rhodes on Sunday, but will send their planes there empty to be able to evacuate the tourists present on the island. According to local media, Dutch tour operator Corendon announced a similar suspension.
Temperatures of over 40°C prevailed in many places in Greece this Sunday. According to the Athens National Observatory, temperatures between 45°C and 46.4°C were measured in the center of the country and on the Peloponnese peninsula in the afternoon. After a very relative breathing space on Monday with peak temperatures of 38 °C, a new heat wave is expected from Tuesday, which, according to meteorologists, should last at least until Friday.