2023-07-23 18:57:45
Faced with the fires that have been ravaging the island for six days, “Rhodes is conquered! ” headlines the local daily I Rodiaki, in reference to the medieval history of the island and its fortress. A photo of the uncontrollable flames crosses the front page of the Sunday edition.
Apocalyptic images come from the Greek island where more than 5,000 hectares have gone up in smoke. “The south of the island has been placed in a state of emergency by the Secretary General of Civil Protection”, specifies the newspaper of the island.
“Hell on Earth”
The great titles of the country devote live to the fires, “minute by minute”, on their site. “Hell on earth for the island which is going through dramatic times”, note Efsyn. “Lives have been put at risk, animals have been killed, villages have been threatened as the ecological disaster continues”summarizes the left-wing newspaper.
“The burned forest area of Rhodes is a significant loss that will cause environmental problems, first to flora and fauna, then to air and soil quality. It is a major ecological disaster”, testifies in the columns of Kathimerini Efthymios Lekkas, Professor of Geology and Natural Disaster Management at the Kapodistrian University of Athens.
Mass evacuations by land and sea
The centre-right daily reports “the immense and unprecedented wave of solidarity offered by the people of Rhodes” et “the help of hundreds of volunteers present from the very first moment to help set up and run accommodation centres”.
More than 19,000 people have been evacuated by land and sea in what appears to be the largest fire evacuation operation in Greece, authorities said. In the middle of the tourist season, thousands of tourists found themselves forced to evacuate their hotels in chaos and haste.
A blow to the tourism industry
“Our country’s ‘heavy industry’ – tourism – has taken a very serious blow to what is perhaps its best exportable ‘product’: the Island of the Knights [le surnom de Rhodes] ”, estimated Naftemporiki.
Despite repeated warnings, no major policy has been implemented by the Greek authorities in recent years. “Former president of the Rhodes and Dodecanese Fire Department, Christos Tsakonas, had proposed exactly two years ago in an open letter a ‘unified forest protection body, for better organization, coordination and response to fires’”, recalls the economic daily.
In addition to Rhodes, fires were also recorded in Attica, Euboea or the Peloponnese this Sunday. Half of the country is on maximum alert to the risk of fires.
Forest fires with dramatic consequences are increasing in Greece. Five years ago to the day, Greece was bereaved by the death of 102 people in the fires of Mati, in the Attica region. By 2021, 100,000 hectares had burned across the country, half of which on the island of Euboea.
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