Tourists evacuated in Rhodes as huge fire front expands
Thousands of tourists had to be evacuated from three hotels that were later damaged by the flames on the southeastern coast of the island of Rhodes on Saturday as a huge wildfire that has been burning on the island since Tuesday morning continued to spread swiftly.
Tourists in the area of Kiotari were gradually being transferred to a nearby beach and from there to safe areas in other parts of the island, authorities said.
The Ministry of Climate Crisis and Civil Protection also told residents in the villages of Lardos, Pylonas, Asklipios and Kiotari to evacuate towards Gennadi.
Earlier, firefighters managed to convince nuns in the Ypseni Monastery who refused to abandon it to leave.
The operation on Rhodes was difficult with strong winds fanning the flames and with extreme temperatures rekindling fronts in other areas of Rhodes. A total of 173 firefighters along with water bombers were in the area on Saturday afternoon.
A large part of the island was without electricity as part of a series of planned power outages by the public power utility PPC which shut down the local plant in the south for safety reasons.
