Thousands of people have been brought to safety on the Greek island of Rhodes, which has been hit by a forest fire. Several hotels have been evacuated. Ships and buses picked up vacationers.
According to media reports, thousands of people have already been brought to safety because of a major fire on the Greek holiday island of Rhodes.
The Greek state radio reported in a special program that 8,000 people had left the south of the island, which is popular with tourists, by land. The number could be even higher, it said.
A large forest fire on Rhodes had gotten out of control. The flames reached the coast south of the popular archaeological site of Lindos in the afternoon. There are dozens of hotels that are fully booked at this time of year. Two villages and several hotels were evacuated.
Residents and tourists were also taken out of harm’s way by ferries.
According to the Greek Coast Guard, more than 30 private ships were involved in the evacuation. The people were picked up from the beaches of Kiotari and Lardos in the east of the Mediterranean island. They were taken to another, safer beach on the island.
Residents in four towns were asked by SMS to go to safety. Buses were also used to evacuate tourists from the area.
The fire that has been raging since Tuesday was initially limited to the mountainous center of the island. Later it spread towards the coast in the center and east of Rhodes. According to media reports, three hotels were caught in the flames. “It is the most difficult fire we have to deal with,” said a spokesman for the Greek fire brigade.
The extent of the fire can be guessed from the air.
Record heat wave feared
As the Meteorological Office announced, values of up to 45 degrees Celsius are expected in the south of the country on Sunday. In the central Greek city of Larisa, the thermometer showed 44 degrees early Saturday afternoon.
In northern Greece, too, there were values around 40 degrees in many places. Even most of the Aegean islands have temperatures above 38 degrees. One of the leading Greek meteorologists, Konstantinos Lagouvardos, estimated on state television that “if things continue like this”, this heat wave could become the longest since measurements have been taken in Greece. In July 1987, a similar heat wave killed an estimated 1,300 people in Greece.
The fire brigade again warned of the great danger of forest fires. “We have even more difficult times ahead of us,” said a spokesman for state television. The danger remains extremely high, it said. The fires in the Athens area and on the Peloponnese peninsula have been brought under control. But these fires flare up again and again because everything has dried up.
In Athens, people are also suffering from the heat.
Help from many countries
Meanwhile, hundreds of firefighters from Romania, Bulgaria, Poland, Slovakia and Malta have arrived in Greece to reinforce the fire brigade and are battling the flames. France, Italy, Turkey, Cyprus, Israel and Jordan are taking part in the extinguishing work with firefighting planes and helicopters, the Greek civil defense announced.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis thanked Turkey for sending two Turkish fire-fighting planes and a helicopter to fight the fires in Greece. “Thank you Türkiye,” said the prime minister in a tweet. The two quarreling NATO countries had come a little closer in the past few weeks after years of disputes.
According to the meteorologists, the heat wave will continue with small fluctuations next week. A new high is expected on Wednesday with temperatures around 46 degrees in southern Greece.
extreme temperatures also in Italy
In Italy, meteorologists are expecting a new heat wave at the beginning of next week. Then between Sardinia and Sicily peak temperatures of 47 to 48 degrees are possible, wrote the weather service Ilmeteo.
The weather service of the Italian Air Force reported 40 degrees from Palermo, the capital of Sicily, in the early afternoon. In Rome it was 37 degrees. 41.8 degrees had already been measured there last Tuesday.
In northern Italy, severe storms followed the summer heat on Friday. Heavy hailstorms were reported from Seregno in Lombardy. Newspapers showed photos of hailstones the size of chicken eggs. According to media reports, a man was injured by lightning in Verona when he was sheltering under a tree.