SOME 19,000 people have been evacuated from the Greek island of Rhodes, Greek authorities said today as wildfires on three fronts continued burning for a sixth day.
The Ministry of Climate Change and Civil Protection described the operation as “the largest evacuation from a wildfire in the country.”
Local police said that 16,000 had been evacuated by land and 3,000 by sea from 12 villages and several hotels with no casualties reported. Six people were briefly hospitalised with respiratory problems but were later released.
This morning, 266 firefighters and 49 fire engines on the ground were joined by five helicopters and 10 planes — seven Greek, two Turkish and one Croatian —to help put out the wildfire, authorities said.
A further 15 fire engines were expected later in the day.
Firefighters have been trying to stop the blaze from spreading from the mountainous part of Rhodes to dense forests nearby.
South-west of the resort of Kiotari, which was the main focus of Saturday’s evacuations, a trench was being dug to keep the fire from crossing a creek and threatening another seaside village called Gennadi.
The weather remained hot in Greece today. Before midday, temperatures had already reached 38°C. Winds were low but are notoriously variable on Rhodes, as on other Greek islands.
Some of those evacuated, including tourists, are being housed in other hotels, gyms and a conference centre. A shipping company has offered one of its ships for accommodation.
Managers from the evacuated hotels are seeking their former clients to put them in touch with their tour operators, authorities said.
Other island visitors have headed to the airport to try to fly home. Greece’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has announced that it is co-ordinating with embassies to help those who might have left their travel documents behind during the evacuation.
Today authorities designated an unprecedentedly large part of the mainland, the whole eastern part of central and southern Greece, plus the islands of Evia and Rhodes as well as large areas of the south-west, as category five, the highest for risk of fire outbreaks.
A further chunk of Greece has been designated as category four, meaning that is at very high risk.
Temperatures reached 43°C in the capital Athens today and 45°C in the interior plains of central Greece.
