As wildfires burned on three fronts for a sixth day on Rhodes, Greek officials evacuated 19,000 residents on Sunday.
The Ministry of Climate Change and Civil Protection called it “the largest evacuation from a wildfire in the country.”
Local police reported 16,000 land and 3,000 sea evacuations from 12 villages and many hotels. Six respiratory patients were hospitalized and released. Authorities said a pregnant woman in good condition and a person who fell and shattered their leg during a hotel evacuation are hospitalized.
TUI and Jet2 canceled Rhodes flights. Jet2 canceled five Sunday Rhodes flights. It planned to fly five empty planes to Rhodes to return customers. TUI canceled all island flights till Tuesday.
British visitor Kevin Evans told Britain’s PA news agency that he and his wife and three small children were evacuated twice on Saturday, first from Kiotari to Gennadi and secondly as the fire approached the northeastern city.
“There were lots of people in Gennadi sent from the hotels—many in just swimsuits having been told to leave everything in the hotel,” he told PA. We saw the fire in Kiotari’s slopes at night. All the hotels were on fire.”
Rhodes tourism salesman Stelios Kotiadis told the AP the evacuation was fast. Panic ensued. He stated authorities were overwhelmed.
However, the abandoned hotels “are in much better condition than reported in social media…. They will be ready to reopen very soon if Civil Protection gives the go-ahead.”
Kotiadis and other travel agents evacuated guests by sending buses to the island’s southeast. Since Rhodes’ eastern road was shut, they took the long way around.
“There were 80 to 90 people cramming into 50-seater buses,” he claimed. He said 90% of evacuated tourists are European.
Matthew Lodge, the British ambassador to Greece, announced that a fast deployment team will assist British nationals on Rhodes.
The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs said staff were heading to Rhodes to put up a missing travel document support station at Rhodes International Airport.
Fire Brigade spokesman Yannis Artopios reported 266 firefighters, 49 engines, and hundreds of volunteers on the ground early Sunday afternoon. Eight helicopters and 10 firefighting planes from France, Turkey, and Croatia are in the vicinity.
EU reinforcements are large.
“Over 450 firefighters and seven airplanes from the EU have been operating in Greece as fires sprout across the country,” EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic tweeted early Sunday afternoon.
Firefighters are preventing the wildfire from spreading to dense forests in Rhodes’ hilly region.
A trench was excavated southwest of Kiotari, the major evacuation site on Saturday, to prevent the fire from crossing a creek and threatening Gennadi.
Sunday in the Mediterranean is hot. Temperatures hit 38 C (100 F) before noon. Rhodes winds are notoriously unpredictable.
Other hotels, gyms, and a conference center are housing displaced travelers. Shipping firm offers ship for lodging. Travel agency Kotiadis told the Associated Press that three ships are used.
As of Sunday, authorities have declared an unprecedentedly vast area of the mainland, including the eastern half of central and southern Greece, the islands of Evia and Rhodes, and large expanses of the southwest, as Category 5, the highest fire risk category. Category 4, very high-risk, covers more of Greece.
Sunday afternoon temperatures in Athens were 43 C (110 F) and 45 C (113 F) in central Greece’s interior plains. Meteorologists predict another heat wave from Tuesday to Friday after Monday’s 38 C (100 F) highs.
