Greece: Thousands flee from forest fires + Swiss accommodated in gym Police want film ban during operations

For thousands of tourists in Rhodes, the Saturday holidays have become a nightmare. It had been burning for days in the densely forested center of the island and firefighters had the flames under control – until the already strong winds suddenly hit Saturday afternoon, sending the flames straight into tourist strongholds and villages in the south and south-east of the island.

Greek state television reported that by evening about 8,000 people had been brought to safety by land. Marine patrol boats and private boats picked up some 2,000 more from beaches, the Coast Guard said.

Late Saturday evening, flames reached the already evacuated village of Laerma – the first houses were on fire, Greek media reports showed. The State Department activated a civil defense crisis team tasked with evacuating the tourists whose hotels and lodgings were being evacuated.

“Tomorrow we’re going to see”

A Watson user vacationing in Greece writes that he too was hit by the fire:

They were taken away in buses. The holidaymakers then spent the night in a basketball hall on Sunday. “Tomorrow we’ll see.”

“Never before have so many villages been affected”

“Never before have so many villages been affected,” a German who has lived on the island for years said to the German news agency on Saturday evening. “Otherwise it will burn towards the west coast. This time, however, the fire came over the mountain to the southeast.” In her village of Lachania, everyone is standing and waiting for their village to be evacuated. The power went out hours ago and she’s in the dark. «I packed the most important things in the car, water, food for my dog. But I’m waiting for the instructions from the authorities, it doesn’t help to drive somewhere without a head.”

Meanwhile, video footage posted on Greek media and social media showed long queues of people running away from their holiday destinations – some panicking, others staying calm, some with their bags, others with nothing but their clothes. It was unclear Saturday evening where they had to be accommodated so quickly. The state broadcaster ERT reported that a ferry was on its way, on which a number of people could initially take shelter. At this time of year, in the middle of the tourist high season, there should be hardly any free accommodation on the island itself.

Due to the forest fire in Rhodes, but also other major fires in Greece, hundreds of firefighters from Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia and Malta have now arrived to reinforce. France, Italy, Turkey, Cyprus, Israel and Jordan are participating in the firefighting efforts with firefighting planes and helicopters, the Greek Civil Protection announced.

Heat wave not yet over its peak

According to the meteorologists, the heat wave that has been raging in Greece since Friday will continue with minor fluctuations in the coming week. A new high is expected on Wednesday with temperatures around 46 degrees in southern Greece. The fire service again warned of the great danger of forest fires. “We have even more difficult times ahead,” said a spokesman.

In the course of global warming, the risk of wildfires is increasing in many regions, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has found. A warmer climate can contribute to more water falling from the sky, also more often in the form of heavy rainfall. However, the periods without precipitation are getting longer in some cases. And especially in areas that are already dry, the danger of periods of drought is increasing. Wildfires can spread more quickly in extremely dry vegetation.

(yam/sda/dpa)