Rhodes fires: residents step in to help tourists as rescue flights planned

A British family taken in by a local family when they were evacuated from their hotel in Rhodes say it “restored their faith in human kindness”.

Caryn Savazzi, originally from South Wales, arrived on the island on Saturday with her husband and sons, unaware that their hotel had already been evacuated amid wildfires.

They were taken to a school where a local family offered them accommodation.

But other Britons remain without beds.

Many were forced to flee their hotels as wildfires continued to spread from the center of the Greek island to its eastern coast, where many beaches and resort hotels are located.

Rhodes has been battling wildfires fanned by strong winds since Tuesday and after smoke began to envelop tourist areas, around 19,000 people were evacuated from the area in the path of the fire.

Some holidaymakers ended up in hotels in other parts of the island, but as many hotels were full, others had to find emergency accommodation, sleeping on mattresses on gym floors, basketball courts and conference rooms.

And the situation worsened on Saturday evening when the planes brought even more tourists, including Ms. Savazzi, whose hotel had already been evacuated even before the family arrived.

Holiday company Jet2 has now canceled five flights to Rhodes, while Tui has canceled all its flights until Wednesday.

Thomas Cook has taken a different approach and said customers who have booked a trip to Rhodes on Sunday and Monday “are still keen to enjoy their holiday” as most areas of the island remain open.

But for customers who need to travel to other areas of Rhodes on Tuesday, July 25, it is offering to cancel and issue a full and prompt refund if they no longer wish to travel.

Meanwhile, EasyJet says it will operate additional flights to bring British holidaymakers home. Two flights will depart on Monday, with 421 seats available in total, and a third on Tuesday in addition to its nine scheduled flights.

Ms Savazzi, from South Wales, said some volunteers were even offering hugs to distressed tourists when they arrived on Saturday evening, while also providing them with food, shelter and water.

She said she, her husband and two young sons were getting ready to sleep on the floor of a school when a volunteer came to ask if there was a family of four among those sheltering in the school.

She told the BBC: “My husband put his hand up. We were the only family of four there.

“The volunteer said a local family had room for us in their house. Now we live with them near Rhodes.

“A man took us back to his house, where his wife was still up at 2:30 a.m. preparing the couch for us to sleep on.

“The couple are in their 50s and their two daughters are traveling at the moment. They said ‘we have space, let’s help each other’. They are clearly incredibly nice people,” she added.

Ms Savazzi and her family share the house with two other stranded families the couple hosted in Germany and Poland.

“An English family was also hosted by the family’s cousins, who live next door,” Ms Savazzi explained.

“We all work together and we made breakfast together this morning. I like how five nationalities came together to help each other.

“It’s just lucky that we got the room, and this family has been just wonderful to us.”

She added: “Families were being evacuated yesterday, so our plane should never have taken off to go to a disaster area.

“Instead, there should have been empty planes evacuating people, not loaded planes arriving.”

“It’s absolutely horrible, but we consider ourselves the lucky ones.”

The family are among many local refugees after being evacuated from hotels destroyed – or at risk of being destroyed – by the wildfires.

Leigh Mitchell and his family were greeted by a local Greek after learning they had no space in a nearby hostel after their hotel was evacuated.

Mr Mitchell, from Birmingham, told the BBC: “Luckily we met a local Greek and we are now at his house about to eat octopus and rice.

“Without him, I really don’t know what we would have done.”

While tourists stuck on the island get by on makeshift mattresses in conference rooms, and in some cases, on the streettour operators have taken the decision to cancel incoming flights to Rhodes over the coming days.

Rhodes Deputy Mayor Athanasios Vyrinis said some people had slept overnight in boxes and warned there were not enough basic necessities.

Greek firefighters have warned that the situation could worsen as more villages have to be evacuated.

The Foreign Office, which sent a five-strong rapid deployment team and four British Red Cross staff to Rhodes Airport to help British nationals, is advising travelers affected by the bushfires to follow the instructions of the emergency services and call 112 in case of immediate danger. .

The British ambassador to Greece said a “rapid deployment team” had been sent by the Foreign Office to help British tourists.

Some British holidaymakers will have to spend another night in makeshift shelters in the absence of any communication from their holiday providers.

Connie Woods, 18, from Newry, Northern Ireland, said she would be sheltering in a school for a second night. She was previously staying at the Pefki Island hotel before her evacuation on Saturday.

A representative from Tui visited the school earlier, but when Ms Woods asked a few questions, her response was that “they have no information at the moment”.

Ms Woods said there were already hundreds staying at the school and more would arrive this evening. “There are a lot of people,” she said.

“So many young children, families without luggage, newborns. It’s horrible.”

Nicola McCullen, 46, from Kilmarnock, slept on a mattress in the street after arriving late on Saturday evening on a Tui flight from Glasgow to Rhodes.

She said that tonight she would sleep in an empty school because she has not heard from holiday company Tui.

Ms McCullen’s partner had taken her on holiday to celebrate her new job.

“We didn’t have a good meal, the locals brought water. Tui didn’t say anything,” she told the BBC.

“Ants are crawling all over my mattress,” she said, still waiting to find out what will happen next.

A Tui spokesperson said its teams were “following advice from local authorities”.

“A small number of hotels have been affected and, as a precaution, we are relocating affected guests and offering them alternative accommodation.

“Our main priority is always the safety of our customers and we will continue to monitor the situation closely.”