Greece Continues to Combat Wildfires, Forcing Thousands More to Evacuate

Authorities have evacuated approximately 2,500 individuals from Corfu, Greece’s island, as firefighters battle multiple wildfires amidst scorching temperatures.

Tens of thousands of individuals have already fled the wildfires on the island of Rhodes, causing panic and chaos as tourists scramble to return home.

As a precautionary measure, around 2,400 visitors and locals were evacuated from Corfu from Sunday to Monday, according to a spokesperson from the fire service.

Greece is currently grappling with an intense heatwave, which has exacerbated the wildfire risk and left countless tourists stranded during the peak tourism season.

Kelly Squirrel, a transportation administrator from the UK, shared her experience of being ordered by the police to evacuate her hotel in Rhodes. She recounted, “We had to keep walking, so we walked for about six hours in the heat.”

Rhodes, a popular holiday destination in Greece that saw 2.5 million visitor arrivals in 2022, has experienced mass evacuations. Greek television aired footage of long queues of people, some in beach attire, dragging their suitcases along the roads of the island after the evacuation order was issued on Saturday.

Increased Heatwave Expected

This weekend, approximately 30,000 people were forced to flee the wildfires on Rhodes, resulting in the largest evacuation process ever conducted in Greece.

Police stated that authorities have transported 16,000 individuals by land and evacuated 3,000 by sea. Others chose to evacuate by road or with their own means of transportation after being instructed to leave the area.

Kevin Sales, an engineer from England, shared a harrowing experience of lending clothes to a woman who had lost everything due to the wildfires. He said, “We had to lend a woman some of my wife’s clothes because she had nothing to wear. It was terrible.”

Tourists and some locals spent the night in gyms, schools, and hotel conference centers on the island as they sought refuge from the fires. Several travel companies have suspended inbound tourist flights to Rhodes but have been assisting in the repatriation of foreigners.

Firefighters have been battling the blazes for approximately a week, utilizing aircraft to extinguish the flames on Rhodes since Monday morning.

While many regions of Greece were deemed at extreme risk of forest fires on Monday, no towns were directly threatened by the flames the night before, according to the fire service.

Forest fires are a recurring problem in Greece, often resulting in significant damage to thousands of hectares of forest and vegetation, as well as loss of life. This summer, the country experienced one of the longest heatwaves in recent years, with temperatures reaching up to 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) over the weekend.

Although temperatures in Athens were expected to drop slightly on Monday, with a high of 37 degrees Celsius, the heat is forecasted to intensify again on Tuesday.

© 2023 AFP

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