2023-07-23 19:38:17
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Fires have been blazing in Greece for days. The situation on Rhodes has drastically worsened. Now the first areas on Corfu are being evacuated.
Feuer im holiday paradise: Tour operator TUI no longer brings tourists to Rhodesvacationers report fires on Rhodes:Feels “like the end of the world” This one News-Ticker to the heavy ones forest fires on the holiday island of Rhodes is regularly updated.
Update from July 23, 10:51 p.m.: The situation in Corfu continues to deteriorate. Because of devastating forest fires, other holiday resorts are being evacuated. People staying in Rou, Katavolo, Kentroma, Tritsi, Kokokila, Sarakiniatika, Plagia, Kalami, Vlachatika and Kavalerena should flee to Ipsos. The ministry said in a statement on Twitter.
Update from July 23, 10:02 p.m.: After Rhodes, another Greek island has to initiate evacuation measures. Also on Corfu the forest fires are so violent that several villages have to be evacuated. According to the Ministry of Environmental Disasters and Civil Protection, vacationers and locals have been evacuated from the towns of Megoula, Santa, Porta, Palia Perithia and Sinies. They were first brought to the port city of Kassiopi.
Forest fires on Rhodes: German family man reports on evacuation – “Just glad to be out there”
Update from July 23, 3:06 p.m.: The Greek island of Rhodes has been a popular holiday destination for years. But severe forest fires have turned the holidays into fire hell for numerous holidaymakers. A family from Garbsen in Lower Saxony reported Bildhow dramatic the situation on the ground was. “In the morning the tour guide had calmed us down. The fires are far away. Two hours later we had to flee from the smoke,” said the family man. After regarding 12 hours, they ended up in temporary accommodation and slept on the floor there.
The family is going back to Germany on Tuesday. The father of the family organized the flight to Munich himself. “We’re just happy to be out there,” he confirmed.
Fire on Rhodes: Greece starts “largest evacuation operation” of all time
Update from July 23, 3:06 p.m.: Heavy forest fires continue to rage on the island of Rhodes. Almost 20,000 people have been evacuated from villages and hotels since Saturday before the blaze. This was announced by the Greek government on Sunday. According to the police, this is the “largest evacuation operation” that has ever taken place in Greece. 16,000 people were evacuated by land and 3,000 by sea.
Tourists were provisionally accommodated in schools, sports halls, conference rooms. Many vacationers are full of praise for the residents of Rhodes given the dire situation. “We spent the night in a school in central Rhodes,” wrote a Twitter user named JMcMahon88. “We got here at 4 a.m. The locals had provided food, water and sleeping bags for the people – unbelievable.”
Fire in holiday paradise: tour operator TUI no longer brings tourists to Rhodes
Update from July 23, 2:49 p.m.: Still in the morning and mid-morning, a number of machines landed, bringing vacationers to Rhodes for their holidays; despite the delicate situation that prevails, especially in the south and inland of the island.
With TUI, the first German tour operator is now reacting to the tourist chaos surrounding the violent forest fires – and is canceling all planned trips to the Greek holiday island for the time being. Customers might therefore rebook or cancel free of charge.
The forest fire on Rhodes is out of control. Thousands have already had to flee. © Argyris Mantikos/dpa
Holidaymakers report fires in Rhodes – Feels “like the end of the world”
Update from July 23, 1:35 p.m.: Thousands of tourists have to leave Rhodes – the danger from the blazing fire is too great. Across from Sky News reports a British holidaymaker, Ian Murison, of the evacuation. He stayed in the Kiotari region of Rhodes. Escaping the flames “literally felt like the end of the world,” he describes.
During the dinner Murison suddenly saw dark clouds passing over him “like in the movies”. After the guests were initially told to stay in the hotel, evacuation by boat was announced a little later. The beach was then littered with suitcases, everyone wanted to leave the holiday island as quickly as possible. “All of a sudden, the flames leaped up into the sky and the sky was completely orange in the distance,” Murison said of the state of emergency.
While the holiday guests got on the boats, there was a jostling. Many children cried, the Brit recalls. “There was general panic.” The evacuation is still ongoing – many hotels and houses are not safe from the flames. According to Greek police, this is the largest evacuation in Greek history.
Thousands of holidaymakers flee from forest fires on Rhodes – the largest evacuation in Greece to date
Update from July 23, 11:20 a.m.: The evacuation on the holiday island of Rhodes continues. According to the Greek government, 19,000 people have been evacuated from the flames since Saturday. A total of twelve villages and numerous hotels were evacuated due to the spreading fire.
According to the police, around 16,000 people were brought overland by bus and other vehicles and 3,000 people by ship from the island. As the office of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Sunday (July 23), this is the largest evacuation operation that has ever taken place in Greece.
Fires in Rhodes continue to rage – ‘No fire that’s over tomorrow’
Update from July 23, 6:24 a.m.: A severe forest fire continues to rage on the Greek holiday island of Rhodes. After thousands of people were brought to safety on Saturday (July 22), the evacuation continued on Sunday night. A total of around 30,000 people have been evacuated from the island so far – more than 2000 people, including numerous vacationers, were picked up by ships from the beaches, as the Greek coast guard announced.
Buses were also used to evacuate overland. Some tourists had to make their way on foot because of roads blocked by flames. Scores of vacationers and some locals were lodged in gymnasiums, school buildings and hotel conference centers for the night.
According to the Greek broadcaster ERT Firefighters had to seek shelter in a monastery near Lardos. “This is not a fire that will be over tomorrow or the day following tomorrow,” fire department spokesman Vassilis Varthakogiannis told the broadcaster Watch TV. The fire on Rhodes will “make things difficult for us for days”.
Forest fires on Rhodes – the situation might last longer
First report from July 22, 8:24 p.m.: Rhodes – Southern Europe has been struggling with heat and drought for days. With temperatures around 40 degrees Celsius, sometimes above, Spain is “melting”, the hospitals in Italy are overcrowded. Above all, the risk for humans and animals from dangerous forest fires increases enormously. As early as June, many feared that the drought and heat might affect summer vacations.
Due to ongoing forest fires and strong winds, thousands of tourists on the Greek island of Rhodes have now had to be evacuated. According to experts, the extreme situation might last longer.
Greece is struggling with the “most difficult fire” – thousands of tourists on Rhodes evacuated
The forest fires that have been raging for three days on the holiday island of Rhodes, which is also popular among German holidaymakers, got out of control on Saturday followingnoon (July 22nd). According to local media, several hotels and guesthouses in the south-east of the island had to be evacuated.
The state radio reported in a special on Saturday evening that 8,000 people had left the south of the island, which is popular with tourists, by land. The number might be even higher, it said. A spokesman for the fire brigade had previously announced that 2,000 people had been brought to safety by boat from the coasts south of Lindos. How many people fled overland was not yet known from official sources on Saturday evening.
“It is the most difficult fire we have to deal with,” a spokesman for the Greek Fire Service told the Athens TV station Sky. Affected are hotels on the Kiotari coast, which is around 55 kilometers south of Rhodes town. “The smoke is so strong that you can hardly breathe,” the broadcaster quoted the Vice Mayor of Rhodes, Konstantinos Traraslias.
The reason the fires got out of control was the high temperatures and drought, as well as strong winds. According to Greek information, force six winds were blowing on Rhodes. 38 degrees Celsius were also measured in some cases.
Twitter videos show devastating forest fires on Rhodes: people are fleeing in droves
According to the information, the evacuated people are being taken to the southern small town of Gennadi. There they were accommodated in other hotels. Like many other of the numerous Greek islands, Rhodes lives almost exclusively from tourism. For every 150,000 inhabitants come loud Deutschlandfunk around 2.5 million tourists a year – many of them travel from Germany to spend their holidays here.
Videos on Twitter show crowds, mostly tourists, carrying suitcases to flee the thick plume of smoke. According to one user, many fled their hotels. The video recordings are wrapped in a reddish filter. It is currently unknown to what extent the forest fires might affect planned vacation trips that are due in the next few days.
A similar situation claimed around 1,300 lives in Greece in 1987
“We have even more difficult times ahead of us,” said a spokesman for the Greek fire brigade on state television on Saturday. The risk of fire is far from over. Large areas of forest also recently burned near Athens, the fire there and fires on the Peloponnese peninsula have been brought under control for the time being, but might flare up once more due to the drought.
To make matters worse, the current heat wave might probably last a little longer. Next Wednesday a new peak with temperatures around 46 degrees is to be reached in southern Greece. “If things continue like this, this hot spell might be the longest since measurements began in Greece,” estimates one of the leading Greek meteorologists Konstantinos Lagouvardos.
In July 1987, a similar heat wave in Greece killed an estimated 1,300 people. Meanwhile, experts see the persistent droughts and increasing forest fires as a direct result of climate change. (rku/dpa)
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