Wildfires In Greece Continue For 7th Day As Over 1,000 Tourists Evacuated

Wildfires on the Greek islands of Rhodes have been raging since Wednesday, causing the evacuation of thousands of people over the weekend.

Tour operators in the country flew almost 1,500 tourists back home as the country began a mass evacuation on the island. The fires also caused evacuations on the island of Corfu, Reuters reports.

The islands of Rhodes and Corfu are major Greek tourist destinations for people from Germany and Britain majorly.

Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, while speaking to parliament, said the country is currently on constant alert, adding that the climate crisis is already here as evidenced by the still-burning fires.

“For the next few weeks, we must be on constant alert. We are at war, we will rebuild what we lost, and we will compensate those who were hurt.

“The climate crisis is already here, it will manifest itself everywhere in the Mediterranean with greater disasters,” he said.

The country frequently experiences wildfires in the summer however, climate change has intensified the heatwaves across southern Europe, leading to bigger and longer-lasting fires.

Greek government spokesperson, Pavlos Marinakis, stated that the evacuation being undertaken is the biggest the country has ever undertaken. From Sunday till early Monday morning, about 1,489 tourists were flown back to their home countries, mainly Germany, Britain, and Italy.

The effects of the fires have hit Greece hard as tourism accounts for about one in five jobs and 18% of its GDP.

Emergency services were also dealing with fires on the island of Evia, east of Athens, and Aigio, southwest of Athens.