- According to the Greek government, 19,000 people from villages and hotels on the island of Rhodes have been brought to safety since Saturday because of forest fires.
- According to initial police estimates, 16,000 people were brought to safety by land and 3,000 people from beaches by sea.
- The airline Swiss continues to fly to the holiday island on Sunday despite the forest fires.
- Other fires have broken out on the Peloponnese peninsula and on the holiday island of Corfu.
Inferno on holiday island
The office of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said it was the largest evacuation operation that had ever taken place in Greece.
Meanwhile, the authorities have called for donations in kind. Mattresses and bedclothes would be needed. A spokesman for the fire department told Skai that the evacuees had received food and water and were receiving medical care. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs helps foreigners exit Rhodes Airport.
Swiss flies on
At the request of SRF, Swiss and Edelweiss said that the flight schedule would continue as normal, since the airport in Rhodes was open normally and the Swiss authorities had not issued any travel warnings at the moment. A Swiss media spokeswoman told the Keystone-SDA news agency that a flight taking off from Geneva was taking place as planned. The return flight on Sunday evening will also be carried out according to plan, it was said.
For the time being, the travel group TUI is no longer bringing tourists to the holiday island. However, the flight connections remained in place to fly guests back to Germany, said a communications manager from TUI Germany, the dpa. There are similar regulations for the other countries. The TUI Group currently has a total of around 39,000 guests on Rhodes, 7,800 of whom were affected by the fire and evacuated.
The British airline Jet2 canceled all flights to the island for Sunday. Five planes would fly to Rhodes today without passengers to take guests back to the UK, Jet2 said.
All hotels evacuated
As a precaution, twelve villages and all hotels in the affected regions have been evacuated. The region around the holiday resort of Lindos with its famous 4th-century Acropolis, which is popular with tourists, was particularly affected.
Video footage shared on Greek media and social media showed long lines of people walking from their vacation spots – some with their suitcases, others with nothing but their clothes.
Most of the people are said to have been taken to the north of the island, where some were temporarily housed in gyms and schools, on ferries and also privately with islanders. Meanwhile, new holiday planes landed, as the vice mayor of the island of Thanasis Virinis told the TV station Mega.
Strong wind does not tear off
Meanwhile, the fires continued to rage. A spokesman for the fire brigade spoke to the state broadcaster ERT of three major fronts. These are fires around the resort of Kiotari, the village of Apollona and the Gadoura reservoir.
Other fires have broken out in other parts of Greece. There were several fires over the weekend on the Peloponnese peninsula and on the holiday island of Corfu, which could reach dangerous dimensions due to the winds on Monday.
Legend:
Hazz Slovak Fire and Rescue Services/Handout via Reuters
Because of the forest fire on Rhodes, but also other large fires in Greece, hundreds of firefighters from Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia and Malta have now arrived to reinforce. France, Italy, Turkey, Cyprus, Israel and Jordan are taking part in the extinguishing work with fire-fighting planes and helicopters, the Greek civil defense announced.
According to the meteorologists, the heat wave that has been raging in the country since Friday will continue with small fluctuations in the coming week. However, it should come to an end on Thursday for the time being.
Legend:
The fires on Rhodes continue to rage.
REUTERS/sotos_arf