Largest Evacuation Of Greek History Takes Place As Rhodes Burn In Wildfire

Thousands of people were displaced from the Greek island of Rhodes as a huge wildfire broke out on the island. This was the peak time of tourism in the country. Hence, there was a huge mess in the area surrounding the fire. On could see a situation of compete panic. While the tourists were already hustling enough to get out of Rhodes, another fire was reported in Corfu – another Greek Island. All this together led to the biggest wildfire evacuation of the nation.

Country burning with wildfires

Similar issues have also been reported on other Greek islands. The second-largest island in Greece, Evia, which is situated off the eastern coast of the country, saw a wildfire. Another popular destination for international visitors, the Greek island of Corfu, was battling its own flames. At Nissaki beach in the northeast of the island, a rescue operation was in progress after 59 persons were already rescued off the beach by six coastguard boats and seven private boats.

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Rhodes wildfire

Greece has had record-breaking temperatures, and on Rhodes, where winds have been gusting as high as 49 km/h (31 mph), fires have been burning for almost a week. “This is Greece’s largest fire evacuation in history. According to Greek police spokeswoman Konstantia Dimoglidou, “We had to evacuate an area of 30,000 people.”

Police reported that 16,000 people had been evacuated by land and 3,000 by sea. Others were forced to leave on foot. Tui, a major German travel company, announced that it would send empty planes to help evacuate visitors while suspending all of its passenger flights to Rhodes.

The fire was being fought by more than 260 firemen, with assistance from Croatia, France, Slovakia, and Turkey, and authorities warned that it might take many days to put out the flames.