Forest fires endanger the Greek island of Rhodes and force a major move

Greek Coast Guard ships on Saturday evacuated hundreds of tourists and locals trapped in Rhodes coastal villages threatened by five-day-old wildfires. They were transferred to safer parts of the island.

A Hellenic Navy warship was en route to join the five Greek Coast Guard ships and two army boats assisted by 30 private vessels in the area, according to a statement from the Coast Guard.

Coast Guard spokesman Nikos Alexiou said about 2,000 people had been evacuated by sea from southeast Rhodes. “Most have been rescued, but the operation continues,” he told Greek television, adding that Coast Guard boats were patrolling the area, along with a helicopter.

Thousands more people on Rhodes were evacuated by land to other parts of the island. George Hatzimarkos, the regional governor for the South Aegean, said about 7,500 people had been relocated.

Rhodes is one of Greece’s most popular summer holiday destinations, especially for the British, who prefer it for its long sandy beaches and vibrant nightlife.

Television footage showed tourists dragging suitcases across the road and residents helping to take them to coastal areas in pick-up trucks. Other reports showed people standing on a beach with their suitcases waiting for lifeboats.

Social media to inform it turned out that many visitors had fled their hotels without belongings. Some were still in them swimsuits.

Rhodes deputy mayor Konstantinos Taraslias told Greek television that some tourists had been taken to the island’s airport and others to schools and stadiums. Some were temporarily accommodated in other hotels.

Paul Kalburgi, a British playwright and screenwriter who stayed at the Lindos Imperial with his husband and two sons, said in a post on Twitter that they had walked just over four miles along the coast to the Atlantica Hotel along with hundreds of others.

He and his family then left the Atlantica in a second evacuation, with locals taking them part of the way, but then having to trudge more than a mile to another hotel, he said in a text suggesting a somewhat disorganized rescue effort.

“The hotel told us to take buses to other hotels – no information why specifically – we all went to the street as instructed but no buses came,” he said. “Then the Red Cross ordered us to get into a car because we had children.”

Earlier, Mr. Kalburgi posted a desperate note about it Twitter as he and his family, wet towels pressed to their faces, had left the Lindos Imperial and tried to avoid the advancing flames.

According to Greek media, at least three hotels have been damaged by the fire.

The Rhodes fire is one of hundreds that have broken out across Greece this week, fueled by tinder-dry conditions as a second heat wave grips the country, with temperatures set to reach 45 degrees Celsius in central Greece on Sunday.

Two major fires that had raged for days west of Athens and on the southern Peloponnese peninsula, destroying dozens of homes and destroying thousands of hectares of woodland, were largely under control on Saturday, Greek fire service spokesman Ioannis Artopios said.

But the Rhodes fire was a strain on firefighters due to the intense heat, dry conditions and high winds. “It’s the toughest fire we face,” said Mr. Artopios, adding that earlier on Saturday the agency had ordered the evacuation of four villages in the southeast of the island.

As night fell, he said ground troops would spend the night battling the fires, which had three active fronts, with aircraft to resume the effort at first light on Sunday.