It was “hell on earth”: Lena Schwarz, having just returned to her country with other German tourists from the Greek island of Rhodes in the grip of the flames, still cannot believe the conditions of her hasty departure.
It was “hell” because “to escape the flames we ran about ten kilometers on foot with all our luggage in a temperature of 42 ° C”, says this 38-year-old German tourist, in the hall of Hanover airport (north).
At least 30,000 people evacuated
Some 30,000 people had to leave their homes or hotels over the weekend because of the fires raging in the east of Rhodes, in the Dodecanese archipelago, while the tourist season is in full swing.
And the Germans provide one of the largest contingents of tourists during the summer on the island of Rhodes, along with the British and the French.
Hundreds of people then crowded into Rhodes International Airport on Sunday, looking for a flight home, as several airlines suspended flights to the island. Many German tourists speak with horror of the conditions of their departure during the weekend.
Fire from “all sides”
“The evacuation was very badly organized”, gets angry Oxana Neb, 50, when she gets off the plane. “We stayed at the hotel until the end and the fire came from all sides,” she explains.
Faced with the growing danger, she says she “ran (with others) to the beach” with the suitcases which were finally “thrown in the sand”, before continuing on her way.
“We saw the fire already from afar” in the hotels and “there was a lot of wind” fanning the flames, says Erika Gobizki, a 24-year-old German.
A chaotic situation
Arrived as best they could at Rhodes airport, the fleeing tourists found a chaotic situation. “There were a lot of people who stayed there” for a long time and who “had to look after themselves to find a hotel”, according to Erika Gobizki, 24 years old German.
In the departures hall of the international airport, in the northwest of the island, some were lying or even asleep on the floor, in the middle of the luggage, while others were grouped in front of the flight display board.
Rhodes, which had 2.5 million visitor arrivals in 2022, is one of Greece’s top resort destinations with numerous hotels all along its eastern shores. The fire that has been raging there for seven days has been fanned by strong winds.