High winds expected to impede fight against wildfires in Rhodes

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High winds forecast for Sunday are expected to hamper firefighters’ efforts to contain wildfires burning out of control on the Greek island of Rhodes, where about 30,000 people have been forced to evacuate.

The flames have burned for nearly a week on the island, as Greece has been battered by an extended spell of extreme heat that has made it challenging to contain the blaze.

Local officials on Rhodes said on Saturday they had moved 30,000 people threatened by fires to safety, including more than 2,500 who had to be ferried off beaches.

“The wind is expected to become more intense from 12 to 5 pm, without excluding the possibility that could happen earlier,” said the fire department spokesperson Vassilis Vathrakoyiannis.

The fires during the night reached the village of Laerma and were burning houses and a church there, while many hotels were damaged by the flames that sometimes reached the sea.

Authorities have warned that the battle to contain the flames, raging in the middle of peak tourism season for Rhodes, will take several days.

Another fire brigade spokesperson, Yannis Artopoios, told Greek TV that the main fronts of the fire were were in areas south of the village of Apollon.

Thousands of people, residents and tourists were evacuated on Saturday from at least six villages.

In Athens, the foreign ministry said it had activated its crisis management unit to help the evacuation of foreign citizens in Greece due to the forest fires.

Tourists and some local residents spent the night in gyms, schools and hotel conference centres on the island while firefighters battled the blaze.

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

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

From the moment the evacuation alert sounded early in the afternoon, tourists headed for the beach, pulling their suitcases behind them.

A large part of the island was without electricity as the public power utility PPC shut down the local plant in the south for safety reasons.

More than 200 firefighters fought the blaze during the night, while the air support started early on Sunday.