GET THEM HOME
Brit families facing ‘living nightmare’ in Rhodes fires as they sleep on floors in shelters while waiting for rescue
BRITISH families are facing a "living nightmare" in Rhodes after fleeing from burning hotels and awaiting rescue on the floors of shelters.
The first repatriation flights arrived on the fire-ravaged Greek island this morning to rescue thousands of stranded Britons as the wildfires continue to spin out of control.
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In Rhodes, more than 16,000 people were evacuated by land and 3,000 by sea from 12 villages and several hotels.
Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell said up to 10,000 British tourists are currently on the island, many of whom ran for their lives.
Now, locals and tourists are also being evacuated from large swathes of Corfu as more blazes rip through the country on Sunday.
People in the areas of Santa, Megoula, Porta, Palia, Perithia and Sinies on the island have been told to leave immediately.
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Both easyJet and Jet2 are planning repatriation flights to Rhodes today to bring Britons home.
EasyJet will operate two rescue flights to Rhodes totalling 421 seats on Monday and a third on Tuesday, in addition to its nine scheduled flights to the island.
One such evacuation flight touched down in Manchester this morning and exhausting-looking families hugged relieved relatives tightly.
A Foreign Office spokesman confirmed a Rapid Deployment Team had arrived on Rhodes to support travel operators in bringing Britons home.
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Conservative MP Alicia Kearns said: “Travel companies must not fail British nationals — they have a duty to help get people back.
“If they fail, the British government will have to take action, but commercial flights are still fully viable," she told The Daily Telegraph.
Over the weekend, extraordinary scenes have shown columns of people carrying their luggage and children on dirt roads as they tried to find safety.
Most fleeing Brits have spent the night in makeshift camps across the island - with young kids forced to sleep on mattresses in classrooms, gyms and stadiums.
Others found refuge on the beach over the weekend as they waited often in darkness to be transported to safety by boats.
Andrew Mitchell, the foreign office minister, said yesterday that there were “only ten free beds on the whole island”.
Over 250 firefighters - backed by aircraft water-bombers and reinforcements from Slovakia - battled three blaze fronts in Rhodes on Sunday, sparking the biggest fire evacuation ever seen in Greece.
The flames have burned for nearly a week on the island after the country was hit by high temperatures and strong winds that make it challenging to contain the blaze.
Mum-of-six Helen Tonks, from Cheshire, said she was flown into a "living nightmare" by Tui at 11pm on Saturday and discovered her hotel had been closed.
She said she and her family were "abandoned" and forced to sleep with hundreds of others on a school floor.
Helen told The Sun: “There was absolutely no communication whatsoever. We got out here and were told our hotel was among those evacuated.
"There are hundreds of us here. We’ve been put up in makeshift dorms in classrooms.
"Dozens are sleeping on mattresses on the basketball court in the gymnasium.”
Connie Woods from Northern Ireland has been sleeping in a school for two nights after fleeing the blaze encroaching her hotel.
She said there were hundreds staying at the school - "it's getting quite crowded," she told the .
"So many young children, families with no luggage, newborn babies. It's awful."
Some flights out of Rhodes were delayed on Sunday night, and there were further delays amid the overnight flights.
Further easyJet, Jet2 and Ryanair flights from Rhodes are scheduled to arrive at Gatwick, Stansted and Bristol this afternoon.
Tui- who had 40,000 tourists in Rhodes, 7,800 of which were impacted by the fires - has cancelled all its flights to the island until Wednesday, but they said those already in Rhodes will return on their scheduled flights.
A spokeswoman for easyJet said it was doing "all it can" to help customers in Rhodes and invited those due to travel to or from the island until Saturday to change the date for free.
British Airways says its flights are running as normal, but those returning early could change their flight for free.
Are you in Rhodes right now? Tell us your story! Contact the foreign desk at: [email protected] or [email protected]
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A British dad-of-four has described his family's hell as they fled the Rhodes inferno in the dead of night.
PE Teacher Daniel Jones said he had to wade into the ocean neck deep to get his young family onto a pleasure boat to escape the flames that chased them.
"It has been a nightmare, our holiday has been ruined, our kids traumatised,"; he told The Sun.
"There was still a lot of confusion, it was madness. There were no reps or anyone to tell us what was happening.
"There was a moment where you could clearly see the flames moving closer but there were no boats to escape, I felt completely powerless to protect my family."
British holiday-goer James Beale was on his way to his hotel in Rhodes with his partner yesterday when their minibus was stopped and held for almost six hours.
He told The Sun: "The whole skyline became covered in smoke, fire engines and police blasted past and suddenly we couldn't see anything.
"The driver didn't speak English and we had no idea what was happening."
They never made it to their hotel and instead have been sleeping on a sheet on the floor of a hotel as they wait for a flight out of the chaos.
"We're not in a bad place like other people, but no one knows anything and Tui is just telling us to sit and wait," he added.
Another British holiday-goer Mark and his pregnant wife who landed last night accused Tui of "chucking us into a warzone".
On route to their hotel, they were diverted to a basketball stadium by police.
"What he saw was a building packed with people sleeping on the floor and the sounds of children screaming," he told Sky News.
"I was told I was not allowed in as [it was] too full but my pregnant wife was."
Instead, Mark had to sit in a car park for hours until he was rescued by a Greek woman who let them have her bed.
"She also brought another family with four young children.";
It comes as Greece continues to face high temperatures - with forecasts of up to 45C this week.
The country also experienced an "insidious and dangerous" heat blast earlier this month as temperatures soaring to 40C.
Weather experts have declared 2023 an El Niño year - a natural phenomenon that occurs cyclically and causes fluctuations in the global climate.
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The UN’s World Meteorological Organization said it will raise temperatures around the world, and the effect is likely to continue for the rest of the year.
And despite the heat this summer, Europe's record temperature of 48.8C - recorded in 2021 in Sicily - has not been reached and is currently not forecast to be broken.
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