2023-07-23 10:33:00
The furnace on the island of Rhodes forces 2,000 people to leave the scene. The heat wave also affects tourism, the TUI agency has decided to suspend its flights to Rhodes.
By HR with AFP A large-scale fire broke out on the island of Rhodes, forcing 30,000 people to leave their homes. © EUROKINISSI / Eurokinissi / AFP Published on 07/23/2023 at 10:33 am
Subscriber-only audio playback
The heat wave favoring the fires, at least 2,000 people had to leave the island of Rhodes to flee the flames. In Greece, where firefighters have recorded 46 new fires in 24 hours, the fire rages on Sunday for the sixth day in a row on the very touristic island of Rhodes, in the Dodecanese archipelago.
A disaster out of control in the east of this island led to the evacuation by boat of around 2,000 people on Saturday, while some 30,000 others were sheltered in gymnasiums, schools or conference centers for the night. Panagiotis Dimelis, a local elected official from the village of Archangelos, described on Skai TV “an unprecedented situation”. The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs has opened a crisis unit in Athens to facilitate the repatriation of foreign tourists.
The biggest operation in the history of Greece
Rescuers carried out “the largest evacuation operation ever carried out in Greece” on the tourist island of Rhodes, where a violent fire raged for the sixth consecutive day on Sunday, police spokeswoman Konstantia Dimoglidou told AFP. “This is the largest evacuation ever carried out in Greece. […] Everything went well. Everyone, especially tourists, followed what we had ordered, ”she said as some 30,000 people had to leave their homes or hotels on Saturday due to the fire.
READ ALSOHeatwave: Greece is alarmed, rise expected in the United States
During the night from Saturday to Sunday, the flames reached the village of Laerma, burning houses and a church, according to the ERT TV channel and the Greek news agency ANA. Many hotels were also affected and the fire spread to the coastal villages of Kiotari and Gennadi Lardos. The fight to contain the fire will take several more days, according to the authorities. The wind, which stirs it, “should strengthen between midday and 5 p.m. (2 p.m. GMT)”, warned a spokesman for the firefighters, Vassilis Vathrakoyiannis.
Temperatures exceeding 44°C are expected for Sunday in Greece. According to the national meteorological observatory, this country is “probably” going through the longest heat wave in its history. All archaeological sites, such as the famous Acropolis of Athens, will remain closed during the hottest hours. “We are likely to experience a 16-17 day heat wave, which has never happened before in our country,” Kostas Lagouvardos, the research director at the observatory, told ERT.
READ ALSOHeat wave, dome, feather: the lexicon of great heat
“We need absolute vigilance […] because the difficult times have not passed,” Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis warned on Friday. On the surface of the sea, the mercury was 2°C to 3°C above normal, the meteorological services announced on Saturday.
The world number one in tourism, TUI, has also announced that it is suspending all its passenger flights to Rhodes. “Until Tuesday, no more new tourists will be airlifted” to this island by the German group, one of its spokespersons, Linda Jonczyk, told AFP. She specified that empty flights were however maintained in order to then be able to evacuate the thousands of tourists still on the island and who are affected by the fires.
#fires #Greece #island #Rhodes #cut #rest #world