Greek fire brigade spokesperson says 19,000 people had been moved from homes and hotels
\n ATHENS
\nThousands of tourists and residents fleeing a wildfire on Rhodes huddled in schools and shelters on Sunday, with many evacuated on private boats from beaches to safer areas of the Greek island when flames moved towards resorts and coastal villages.
\nThousands more spent the night outdoors and tour operators Jet2, TUI and Correndon cancelled flights departing for the island, which is located in southeastern Greece and is popular with holidaymakers for its beaches and historic sites.
\nGreek fire brigade spokesperson Ioannis Artopoios said 19,000 people had been moved from homes and hotels, calling it the biggest safe transport of residents and tourists Greece has carried out.
\nBritish tourist Amy Leyden described the \u201cterrifying\u201d experience of being moved from two hotels with her 11-year-old daughter, before being taken to the safety of a school.
\n\u201cWe were walking down the road at 2 o\u2019clock in the morning and the fire was catching up with us,\u201d she told Sky News.
\n\u201cI didn\u2019t think we were going to make it.\u201d
\nCoastguard vessels and dozens of private boats carried more than 3,000 tourists from beaches on Saturday after the wildfire, which has burned for nearly a week, was fanned by strong winds and rekindled along the southeastern part of the island, Greece\u2019s third most populated with around 125,000 residents.
\n\u201cIt was literally like the end of the world,\u201d another British tourist Ian Murison told Sky from a rescue ship taking people to the main city in the north of the island.
\nMurison described chaotic scenes of large groups of tourists on a beach scrambling to board coaches.
\nMany fled hotels when huge flames reached the seaside villages of Kiotari, Gennadi, Pefki, Lindos, Lardos and Kalathos. Crowds gathered in the streets under a red sky waiting to be taken to safety. Smoke hung heavy over a deserted beach.
\nVolunteers fought to extinguish a blaze that blackened the hillside and charred buildings near Lindos, which is famed for an acropolis on a massive rock within medieval walls.
\n\u201cWe have between 4,000 and 5,000 people now accommodated at different structures,\u201d Thanasis Virinis, a vice mayor of Rhodes told Mega television on Sunday, calling for donations of essentials such as mattresses and bedclothes.
\nOne pregnant woman and another person were hospitalized due to the wildfire, fire brigade spokesperson Artopoios said.
\nFrench, German, Dutch and British citizens were among the tourists on Rhodes, which one hotelier said can receive 150,000 visitors at a time in peak season.
\nThe evacuees, including residents from the villages, were housed at hotels, indoor stadiums, conference centres and school buildings, where they were given food, water and medical assistance, Artopoios told Skai radio.
\nOne British tourist thanked locals for their generosity, in an interview with Greek television, saying shops had refused payment for water and food and small boats had taken women and children to safety first, before returning for the men.
\nThe Greek foreign ministry said it was setting up a helpdesk at Rhodes airport to facilitate the departure of visitors who have lost travel documents, in cooperation with embassies.
\nSocial media footage showed crowds at the airport.
\nGerman travel association DRV said around 20,000 German tourists were on the island, but only a small proportion were affected by the evacuations.
\nTour operator Jet2 said five planes due to take more tourists to the island would instead fly empty and would take people home on their scheduled flights. Air France-KLM said its daily flight from Rhodes was operating as normal. Ryanair said its flights to and from the island were unaffected by the fire.
\nTUI said it cancelled all outbound flights to Rhodes up to and including Tuesday. \u201cCustomers currently in Rhodes will return on their intended flight home\u201d, it said in a statement.
\nOne French tourist in Lindos said he had watched an increasing frequency of amphibious fire-fighting aircraft in the sky over the past few days. The yellow planes could be seen scooping up seawater, television images showed.
\n\u201cEverything is happening very fast, we\u2019ve been seeing more and more smoke,\u201d the tourist, who gave his name only as Hugo, told French television.
\nMore than 250 fire fighters were trying to contain the flames, assisted by 18 aircraft, Artopoios said. They battled three fronts on Sunday, setting up firebreaks to stop flames spreading to a dense forest or threatening more residential areas.
\nThe fire has scorched swathes of forest and several buildings since breaking out in a mountainous area on Tuesday.
\nCivil protection has warned of a very high risk of wildfires on Sunday in almost half of Greece, where temperatures were expected to hit 45 Celsius (113 Fahrenheit).
\nHeatwaves across Southern Europe and many parts of the world could last until August.
\nFires are common in Greece but hotter, drier and windy summers have brought more of them in recent years. Climate change means heatwaves will become more frequent, an advisor to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said on Saturday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Greek fire brigade spokesperson says 19,000 people had been moved from homes and hotels ATHENS Thousands of tourists and residents fleeing a wildfire on Rhodes huddled in schools and shelters on Sunday, with many evacuated on private boats from beaches to safer areas of the Greek island when flames moved towards resorts and coastal villages. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344978,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-344943","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n