Rhodes fires: 'Everyone's on edge' says island resident

Cathy Holloway said tourists on other parts of the island have been largely unaffected

A woman who was evacuated from her house during the Rhodes fires said she does not know if she still has a home.

Cathy Holloway, originally from Bristol, works with tourists on Rhodes after moving there in 2020.

She said: "Everybody's on edge. You're watching the smoke filling the sky and wondering if it's coming for you."

She said she received a government emergency message on Sunday afternoon telling her to evacuate which essentially said "get out now".

An easyjet flight took holidaymakers from Bristol to Rhodes earlier despite the fires affecting the south-eastern and central part of the island.

An easyjet spokesperson said: "If you are booked to travel to or from Rhodes before the 29th of July, our flights are still operating."

However, they have offered a change of flight or voucher to anyone wishing to change travel plans.

Easyjet and Jet2 are operating repatriation flights from Rhodes in addition to their scheduled flights.

Wind coupled with very dry conditions and high temperatures meant wildfires spread across Rhodes

Ms Holloway told BBC Radio Bristol: "We've had some small fires [before] but nothing on this scale."

She said her balcony at home was facing towards the fires so she could see the smoke in the distance.

"On the day everything really kicked off, when Kiotari went up in flames, we could see the smoke heading down in that direction quite strongly.

"Then yesterday the smoke was coming back towards us and I wasn't surprised when I was told to get out because the smoke was all around.

"You could smell it, you knew it was close and you just grabbed what you could and off you went."

• Flights sent to bring tourists home

• Locals step in to help

She said she ended up in Rhodes town "on a hotel conference room floor, which was less than comfortable", but is now staying with Greek friends.

She said she thinks it could take a week before the authorities have it properly under control because the conditions have been so dry and so hot for so long.

"It's a tinder box because the centre of the island is all forest, so it's like a nice big bonfire that someone put a match to."

One of the sports halls in Rhodes was cleared to accommodate stranded holidaymakers on Saturday

She said the firefighters and locals have been "fabulous".

"I live on the main road and I watched bus after bus after bus going down empty to pick the [tourists] up.

"I know it could have been done better but I've got to say the Greeks are working tirelessly to help everyone and to fight the fire at the same time.

"The locals here have really really rallied around and I'm seeing wonderful stories of them bringing food to people, taking them in and giving them a bed for the night and doing their best to help people who are stranded here."

Ms Holloway said the sky was now clear and she may return home but it was a case of being ready to "wait and see" and she does not know if her home has survived.

"I'm very pragmatic, I've got my passport, I've got my credit card, I've got my phone and my son said mum, if you need a flight, tell me and I'll look for you and I'll meet you at the airport."

Simon Wheatley said some hotel residents were waiting for buses in 38C heat

Simon Wheatley, from Cheltenham, had to flee his hotel, alongside his pregnant fiancée and three-year-old son, and was searching for alternative accommodation for the next few nights.

Mr Wheatley said his family was "one of the lucky ones" because they had a hire car, while others at the hotel had to wait for shuttle buses or taxis.

"People were there with wet t-shirts over their mouth trying to breathe more effectively because the air by then was unbearable.

"It was like a bad bonfire night in November, you could not handle the smoke at all."

Corfu has also been affected by wildfires with nearly 2,500 people evacuated.

Roz Stewart-Hall, 56, from Bristol, is in Corfu with her wife and child and was staying at the Mareblue Beach Resort on a TUI holiday.

They have three days left of their holiday but said after seeing wildfires approaching they felt uncomfortable with staying.

Ms Stewart-Hall said: "My wife spoke to the TUI representative and they said advice was to stay put as luckily the wind is blowing in the opposite direction. We didn't feel reassured".

Photos uploaded to social media showed flames moving across ridgelines in Corfu

The hotel also informed them that if there were any issues an alarm would sound in the night.

Ms Stewart-Hall said she was worried there would then be "mass panic if that happened" and was concerned about being crushed.

Her wife's brother and his family are staying on the island in a villa just under two hours away and he picked them up during the night so they could feel safer.

Ms Stewart-Hall said as they were driving away she "could see the fires on the horizon and that was chilling as you could see the full size of the fires".

Theofanis Skembris, deputy mayor of North Corfu, told the BBC most of the fires are now under control and he believes "everything will be over soon".

'Why did they let us fly?'

Stephen Lancaster, from Salisbury, said he flew from Bournemouth to Rhodes on Sunday.

"There was an hour delay because of the fire over here. And then after the hour, we took off. Then when we landed here last night, all the hotels were evacuated.

"So they must have known our hotel or anybody else's hotel, that we will not [be able to] go back into it.

"I don't understand why they still flew us over - why didn't they say it's the wildfires, you can't come over?"