2023-07-23 00:15:00
The fire on the island of Rhodes (Greece) burns a pine forest this Saturday. STRINGER | REUTERS
The Greek authorities have warned of a very high risk of fires in seven regions due to the heat wave that the country is suffering, with highs of up to 45 degrees.
23 jul 2023 . Updated at 00:15 h.
Ms de 2.000 personas have been evacuated by sea from two beaches of the rhodes island (Greece) due to the wildfires that have ravaged the island without control for five days, as reported this Saturday by the Greek Fire Service.
Until now, more than 2,500 tourists have been evacuated with boats from the beach of Kiotari and Lardos, on the eastern coast of the island, Coast Guard spokesman Nikos Alexu told private SKAI television. Due to the fire, at least seven towns in the center and the eastern coast have had to be evacuated, since the fire has a front of at least 25 kilometers. In total, at least 30,000 people have had to be displaced and, when the evacuation order was given this afternoon, some 8,000 tourists were in the area.
The flames have caused damage to at least three hotels and they have already reached the town of Laerma, in the center of the island, where houses have been burned, local media report. In images disseminated by the Greek media, you can see how tourists are transferred in vehicles to the evacuation points on the beach. Videos posted on social networks show lines of several kilometers of tourists who, suitcases in hand, walk to nearby beaches to be evacuated.
Several hotels and tourist complexes have been evicted due to the advance of the forest fire in Rhodes EUROKINISSI | REUTERS
All the flights from Rhodes are full, so thousands of tourists they cannot leave the island by plane, reports the newspaper News247. The Rhodes Port Authority decided to requisition all tourist boats in the area to help in the evacuation operation, while a Navy ship has also been deployed in the area.
the fire has burned thousands of hectares of virgin forest and this Saturday it spread from the center of the island to the eastern coast. Three Coast Guard ships, a Navy ship, military inflatable boats and 30 private boats, including tourist boats, have been used in the evacuation, which has passed without incident, said a spokesman for the Fire Department, Yannis Artopios, quoted by the newspaper Kathimerini.
The Blue Star company has also offered one of its ferries to transport part of the evacuees, Artopios explained. Less than 10 percent of the island’s tourists have been affected by the forced evacuation, he has pointed out. They are tragic moments. The destruction is unimaginable, said the governor of the South Aegean, Giorgios Hatzimarkos, in statements to Skai public television. Our goal is human lives, he has underlined himself.
The most affected area is that of Laerma, where the turn of strong winds has been the reason for the evacuation orders for this tourist area. However, the tourist facilities themselves do not appear to be in danger at the moment.
Greece lives a extreme heat wave, with temperatures that exceeded 44 degrees today in central Greece, while this Sunday the thermometers are expected to reach 45 degrees. The fires have ravaged the island for five days and are uncontrolled on two of the four fronts, according to the latest official estimate. The inhabitants who remain on the island are in most cases without electricity supply because the power station in the south of Rhodes has been disconnected for security reasons.
In the fight against the flames they work 205 Greek firefighters on land with 39 vehicles and with the support of air resources. Thirty-one Slovak firefighters with five vehicles have also been deployed to assist in the extinction work.
The Greek Ministry of Civil Protection has issued a high fire risk alert for seven of the country’s thirteen regions: Attica, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Western Greece, Thessaly, South Aegean and North Aegean.
Filed Under: Greece
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