On the Greek island of Rhodes, around 30,000 people have been rescued from a forest fire that has raged for days. More than 2,000 of them, including numerous tourists, were rescued by ships from beaches on Saturday, the Greek coastguard said. Additionally, dozens of buses were used for the evacuations. Some tourists had to go on foot because of the roads blocked by the flames.
Evacuations continued into Sunday night. “This is not a fire that will end tomorrow or the day after tomorrow,” fire department spokesman Vassilis Varthakogiannis told Skai TV. The fire in Rhodes “will make us difficult for days”.
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According to the Greek broadcaster ERT, the firefighters had to seek shelter near Lardos, in the monastery of Ypseni. There they tried again to persuade the monks to leave the premises.
Regional governor Georgios Hadjimarkos told Skai TV that evacuations were complicated by road links cut by the fire. Refugee tourists, as well as some locals, were housed in gymnasiums, school buildings and hotel conference centers overnight.
The great fire in Rhodes lasts for five days. It had erupted on a mountain in the center of the island. Five helicopters and about 200 firefighters were mobilized to fight the fire.
Greece is currently suffering from an extreme heat wave. Temperatures of over 44 degrees were expected this weekend. Numerous forest fires are currently raging in the country. According to the fire department, 46 new fires occurred in 24 hours.
No end in sight to Greece’s heat wave
As the Meteorological Office announced on Saturday, values of up to 45 degrees Celsius are expected in the south of the country on Sunday. In central Greek city Larissa the thermometer read 44 degrees in the early afternoon of Saturday. Also in the north zone, values around 40 degrees were recorded in many places on Saturday.
Even most islands in the Aegean sea have temperatures above 38 degrees. One of Greece’s leading meteorologists, Konstantinos Lagouvardos, estimated on state television that “if things continue like this”, this heat wave could become the longest since measurements were taken in Greece. In July 1987, a similar heat wave killed an estimated 1,300 people in Greece.
Heat wave expected in Sardinia and Sicily
In Italy, too, there is still no end in sight to the heat wave. Italian meteorologists expect a new one early next week heat wave. so be between Sardinia It is Sicilia temperatures of 47 to 48 degrees possible, wrote the meteorological service Ilmeteo.it on Saturday. He spoke of a “Charon bis” (Charon with encore), alluding to last week’s loud “Charon”. Charon is the Italian name for Charon, the ferryman of the underworld in Greek and Roman mythology.
On Saturday, the meteorological service of the Italian Air Force reported 40 degrees from Palermo, the capital of Sicily, in the early afternoon. In Rome it was 37 degrees. 41.8 degrees had already been measured there last Tuesday.
In northern Italy, heavy thunderstorms followed the summer heat on Friday. Severe hailstorms were reported from Seregno in Lombardy. Newspapers showed pictures of hailstones the size of chicken eggs on Saturday. According to media reports, a man was injured by lightning in Verona while taking shelter under a tree. New storms are expected in the north on Saturday.