Thousands evacuated to safety as wildfires rage on Greek island of Rhodes

Officials on the Greek island of Rhodes have evacuated thousands of locals and tourists from villages in the southeast of the Aegean island, where wildfires were raging out of control for a fifth day.

High winds and a nine-kilometer (six-mile) fire front running from the center of the island to its eastern beaches were creating extreme conditions, fire service spokesman Vassilis Varthakogiannis told Skai TV.

"This is not a fire that will be over tomorrow or the day after tomorrow," Varthakoyannis said, adding, "It'll be troubling us for days."

Another 1,200 people were expected to be evacuated from the villages of Pefki, Lindos and Kalathos, he added.

"We had set up firebreaks around the village of Laerma last night," Konstantinos Taraslias, a deputy mayor of Rhodes, told Open TV.

"But a 180-degree change of the winds this morning helped the fire grow much bigger across many kilometers ... reaching a tourist area."

In Athens, the Foreign Ministry said it had activated its crisis management unit to facilitate the evacuation of foreign citizens in Greece due to the ongoing forest fires.

An 'unprecedented situation'

Local officials on Rhodes said on Saturday they had moved 30,000 people threatened by wildfires to safety -- including 2,000 who had to be ferried off beaches.

George Hadjimarkos, regional governor of the South Aegean, told Skai television that the operation, which was still ongoing, had been hampered by fires cutting off some road access.

"The aim is to protect human life," he said.

Tourists and some locals were being taken to gyms, schools and hotel conference centers on the island where they will stay overnight, while firefighters battled the blaze.

Greek wildfire rages near Athens; homes, hospital evacuated

A Greek wildfire fueled by gale-force winds raged in the mountainous region of Penteli near Athens on Tuesday, prompting authorities to order the evacuation of at least four areas and a hospital.

In addition, three passenger ferries have been moored at the port of Rhodes to accommodate those rescued, Athens News Agency reported.

Members of the coast guard, the armed forces and local government workers used dozens of buses to help move people away from the fires, said Rhodes municipality official Teris Hatziioannou.

Where the fires had cut off road access, some tourists had to walk to safety.

"It is an unprecedented situation for the island," Panagiotis Dimelis, head of the Archangelos village council, told Skai TV, adding that many locals had rushed to help the tourists.

For the beach operation, the coast guard said three of its boats led more than 30 private vessels to pick up people from the Kiotari and Lardos beaches on the east of the Mediterranean island.

A Greek navy boat was also headed to the area to help, according to the coast guard.

Five helicopters and 200 firefighters fought the blaze during the daytime, but the air support was called off once the light failed.

The battle to extinguish the fire in Rhodes continues in the area of Laermon and Lardos, where it is also raging out of control.

Further inland, the fires had reached the village of Laerma and was burning houses and a church there, the ANA news agency and ERT TV reported.

(Source: AFP)

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