The Dutch of Rhodes flee a forest fire: “The sky has turned orange”

“This morning, when we got up, we saw clouds of smoke hovering over the hotel, but that did not immediately cause panic,” Rolf Oligschläger told RTL News. “We just went swimming, but suddenly a fire alarm went off. We had to leave in a hurry.”

Alice Reumkens also had to flee the fire. She and her family are on vacation in Rhodes for two weeks. “I didn’t fully trust it, because we saw the sky turning orange,” Reumkens told RTL Nieuws. They decided to pack their bags and in no time came the message they were already dreading: they had to leave.

“I was able to quickly throw magazines into the bags,” Reumkens says. This morning, she was still sitting on the beach with her family. There they were given water and wet towels. “But now there is almost no water.

big stream

Together with a large group of people, they are now marching towards the south side of the island. “We are walking towards the blue sky. To the left and right of us are now dark clouds of smoke,” Reumkens explains. Returning to the hotel is not an option.

“There are no police visible anywhere, nothing at all. There are all the cars full of luggage,” says Reumkens. Let’s see what the situation looks like in Rhodes in this video:

In the meantime, according to Reumkens, he remains eerily quiet at the Corendon travel agency, where she has booked. “We asked last night if we should be worried, but they said no.”

200 guests from Corendon

In a response, Corendon informs RTL Nieuws that approximately 200 Corendon guests are affected by the forest fire in Rhodes. They are evacuated from the affected area. “This is done under the direction of the government. People are cared for in designated places, such as sports halls,” said a spokesperson.

“We are currently looking for alternative accommodation for our customers who cannot return to their hotel at the moment. We are also offering these customers the option of returning to the Netherlands today or tomorrow.”

Dutch people traveling to the Greek island today or tomorrow will be approached by Corendon. “We offer them alternative accommodation and if they prefer to rebook their holidays to another destination, that is also possible.”

Evacuations

Previously, only people in the center of the island, in forested, mountainous and sparsely populated areas, were called to evacuate. The southwest coast, where Reumkens was also with his family, must now also leave. The fire is further fueled by the strong wind. Several European countries sent firefighting planes and/or firefighters to help put out the blaze.

These include parts of Kiotari and Lardos, about 40 kilometers south of the island’s capital. According to local authorities, tourists are not in danger, but thousands of people are evacuated. They are transferred from the beach to larger ships in small boats. Greek media report that three hotels on fire stole.

In mainland Greece, there are fears that the fires could flare up again due to the drought and the heat which is sweeping the country in waves. It averaged 36.5 degrees in Greece on Friday, but above 40 degrees in many places. Locally it could be well above 40 degrees on Sunday.