2023-08-31 06:38:09
It’s been a month since the most devastating forest fires in recent history raged on Rhodes. Pictures of blazing fires, stranded tourists and deserted beaches dominated the news, one could read about the Greek hell of fire, the whole world spoke of a turning point: It will never be the same again, the holiday island in the southern Aegean had reached its limits and over and beyond. This must have had a disturbing effect on the 115,000 Rhodians, 80 percent of whom live from tourism. Her island, her home, became a symbol of ruthless human destruction of the environment. And with each passing day that the fires continued, they saw their livelihood melt away.
There is no sign of any of this on the plane that takes off from Düsseldorf in the direction of Rhodes. Every seat is occupied, even with holidaymakers who only booked one of the cheap offers after the fires, with which the big tour operators want to fill their hotels again as quickly as possible. Judging by the picture at Rhodes Diagoras Airport, they succeeded: a crowd of people crowded into the midday sun, the thermometer showed 29 degrees, which must feel almost fresh compared to the more than 40 degrees that prevailed here during the fires.
The smoke in the sky has long since cleared
Even in the alleys of the old town of Rhodes on the northern tip of the island there is little to indicate that a natural disaster has just been overcome and certainly nothing to indicate a lack of tourists. The streets, the shops, the restaurants, everything is full of people. Germans and English make up the majority of the 2.5 million annual visitors, and most spend their holidays in all-inclusive resorts. Rhodes Town is one of the few places where they mingle with the locals. When you talk to those who make a living from tourism here, you often hear the same thing: everything works, the guests could come back, and hardly anyone noticed the fires in large parts of the island anyway.
In fact, you have to drive a while from Rhodes Town to see the effects of the fire. The smoke in the sky and the smell of burning have long since dissipated. It’s an hour and a half’s drive south on a coastal road, passing olive groves and pine forests with beautiful views of the sea. Then suddenly tree skeletons appear, and a few kilometers further, just before Kiotori and Gennadi, you are right in the middle of the fire zone. Modern white-fronted hotels line the roadside, untouched by the flames but surrounded by black earth. The fire has eaten its way through to the sea at this point, and only the charred pillars of a beach bar can be seen. However, most of the houses survived the fire unscathed because the strong winds blew it so quickly in a south-easterly direction that there simply wasn’t enough time to engulf the buildings.
#Rhodes #forest #fires #normal