According to local authorities, about 30,000 people were evacuated from the island on Saturday July 22 as they were threatened by fires that have been ravaging Greece for a week.
According to Frenchwoman Morgane Duclaux, who has been living on the Greek island of Rhodes for several days and is being ravaged by fires, “the local population has made great efforts, but communication from the authorities has been very poor,” she lamented on franceinfo on Sunday 23 July. She explains that “there were reports of the evacuation of the villages, but not much else”.
>> Greece: Devastating fires and criticism of the authorities’ lack of preparation
On site, the Frenchman describes an “extraordinary” situation, “very worried at the moment”. She says: “Ever since there were mass evacuations, we’ve put people in gyms and schools.”
A great solidarity on site
“There are many calls on social networks to help or bring food,” she adds. The French also talks about the solidarity that is lived: “There are shops that were opened today in an unusual way. We have owners who have taken exceptional numbers of people into their homes.”
Morgane Duclaux confirms that this year is indeed an “extraordinary” situation: “There have been fires in recent years, but not on this scale and the heat waves have never lasted so long.” Temperatures exceeded 46 degrees in places across the country.
“We had to walk for miles, with the fire at our backs, unbearable heat, with children and the elderly on very narrow paths.”
Magalie Francois
at franceinfo
“We were evacuated very quickly, too quickly, in 10 minutes,” says another French woman on franceinfo. Magalie François, 37-year-old Lorraine, was on a trip to the island of Rhodes with her husband and their 8-year-old daughter, they returned to France this Sunday.
Everything started on Friday “with a lot of smoke” and then everything accelerated on Saturday afternoon: “The flames spread, the smoke was thick.” With her husband and daughter, Magalie says, she “walked seven kilometers for three and a half hours to evacuate”. “First we were put up in a hotel, then the army came to liberate us to the south. Finally they picked us up in the night and took us to the airport.”
An evacuation “too late”
“It was very hot,” she continues, “it was complicated, the fire went faster than us, we were very scared.” She says there were “thousands on small paths with children, babies, old people, asthmatics” and laments the lack of support and anticipation: “We were evacuated too late when the flames were behind the hotel.”
According to her, the local authorities were “stunned, they didn’t understand what was happening and were overwhelmed”.