More than 30 boats evacuate on the Greek island of Rhodes

Bushfires raged on the island for five days and more than 30,000 people have already left the island

On Saturday, more than thirty private ships took part in an evacuation operation on the tourist island of Rhodes in Greece, where a forest fire raged five days ago.

According to the Greek coast guard, people were on the beaches of Kiotari and Lardos, on the eastern coast of this Mediterranean island.

Three ships of the Coast Guard coordinated the operation, which included more than thirty private boats, while a ship of the Greek Navy headed towards the area.

According to Agence France-Presse, more than 1,500 people have already been evacuated to another beach.

According to local authorities, about 30,000 people have already been able to leave the fire-threatened areas by various means in recent days.

Residents, holidaymakers and seasonal staff evacuated hotels and homes in Kiotari and Lardos as wildfires raged out of control on the island of Greece. # Rhodes. Police say about 15,000 people have been ordered to evacuate. pic.twitter.com/nNxHionsbm

– Daphne Tollis (@daphnetoli) July 22, 2023

According to the deputy chief of firefighting, Yiannis Artaboios, this fire, which broke out on a mountain in the center of the island, is the most difficult fire Rhodes has ever faced.

Five helicopters and 173 firefighters were battling the blaze and three hotels in the Kiotari district were ablaze.

The heat wave to hit Greece could be the longest in the country’s history, according to forecasts from the National Meteorological Institute, which point to maximum temperatures of 45 degrees this weekend.

“According to the data, we are likely to witness 16 or 17 very hot days, which has never happened before in our country,” Kostas Lagovardos, a researcher at the institute, warned Greek public television.

Greece defines a heat wave as a period when the temperature exceeds 39 degrees, and the longest period so far was 11 days recorded in 1987.