Greece is ‘at war with fire’, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told parliament on Monday, as wildfires continued to rage for a seventh day, forcing mass evacuations on the islands of Rhodes, Corfu and Evia. The country has been battling infernos amid scorching temperatures reaching 45C, with hot, dry, windy conditions described as ‘super food’ for fires.
The largest evacuation in Greek history saw 19,000 people, mostly tourists, moved from south-east Rhodes to the north of the island by land and sea. Overnight, an estimated 2,466 residents fled 17 villages along Corfu’s northern coast, an area popular with British villa owners, while hundreds were also evacuated on Evia. Holidaymakers recounted panic-stricken night-time transfers in army trucks to beaches, where they were taken onto Greek navy ships.
Many tourists criticised tour operators for ‘invisible’ support and for flying new arrivals into Rhodes as late as Saturday, despite the fires being uncontrollable across large parts of the island. The government’s priority remains ‘human life’, Mitsotakis said, recalling the 2018 Mati fire disaster that killed 102 people. Since then, he said, authorities have learned to organise evacuations.
Civil protection officials described the evacuations as ‘precautionary’ due to strong, erratic winds fanning flames. With tourism providing 25% of Greece’s GDP, Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni insisted that on Corfu the situation was not ‘alarming’ and on Rhodes only a small part had been affected. Army transport planes worked through the night to deliver camp beds and supplies to Rhodes, where thousands had slept rough at the airport or in makeshift shelters.
Government experts will assess the disaster’s scale in the coming days, with compensatory payments to follow. Countless homes, businesses and arable land are believed lost. The human-caused climate crisis has increased the wildfire season globally by around two weeks, and is responsible for a higher likelihood of fires in southern Europe.
