INFERNO ISLANDS
Rhodes wildfires ‘out of control’ with new evacuations ordered & 10,000 Brits trapped as flames ravage Corfu
RAGING wildfires are still "out of control" on the island of Rhodes as new evacuation orders come into force.
At least 19,000 locals and tourists have already been rescued from the fire-ravaged island in the biggest evacuation effort Greece has ever seen - with up to 10,000 Brits still stranded.
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Terrified holidaymakers have been forced to flee burning hotels, wade through water and sleep on gym floors - with repatriation flights finally arriving on Monday to rush Brits out of the country.
Wildfires erupted on the island of Corfu - and Level 5 alerts were issued for Crete amid fears of a similar inferno.
The deputy mayor of Rhodes, Konstantinos Taraslias, said the fires are still burning out of control after seven days of fighting them.
Taraslias said thousands of people need to be evacuated and given shelter as the flames rip through tourist hotspots.
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Two more villages on the island - Malona and Massari - were facing fresh evacuation orders from the government on Monday.
More than 16,000 people have been evacuated by land and 3,000 by sea from 12 villages and several hotels - many of them Brits.
Extraordinary scenes showed columns of people carrying their luggage and children on dirt roads as they desperately tried to find safety.
Many found temporary refuge on the beach as they waited in darkness overnight to be transported to safety by boats.
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Other fleeing Brits spent the night in makeshift camps across the island - with young kids forced to sleep on mattresses in classrooms and gyms.
Fires also erupted on the popular island of Corfu on Sunday night - with shocking photos showing the north of the island engulfed in flames.
Nearly 2,500 locals and tourists were evacuated overnight, the fire department said.
Around 59 people were scrambled onto boats at Nissaki beach as the frantic evacuation effort began, according to the Greek Coast Guard.
People in the areas of Santa, Megoula, Porta, Palia, Perithia and Sinies on the island were urged to leave.
An SOS message said: "If you are in Santa, Megoula, Porta, Palia Perithia & Sinies, evacuate now to Kasiopi.
"Wildfire in your area - follow instructions of authorities."
Footage showed the orange glow of the fires in the distance - with clouds of black smoke rising into the sky.
Speaking on Monday morning, Theofanis Skembris, deputy mayor of North Corfu, believes the fires on the island were started deliberately.
He told the : "There were four fires that started simultaneously.
"We have to wait for the investigation, but their first unofficial assumption is that it was arson - fires can't start simultaneously in four different places.
"The situation in the island is better now. Most of the fires are under control. There are firefighting planes helping."
British Embassy officials in Athens urged Brits to leave Rhodes on Saturday evening - as holidays and flights continue to be cancelled.
The Foreign Office has also scrambled an evacuation team.
The British ambassador to Greece, Mathew Lodge, said the Foreign Office had sent a "rapid deployment team" to help UK tourists who were among thousands forced to run for their lives.
Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell said up to 10,000 British tourists are currently on the island of Rhodes.
He told Times Radio: "This is peak holiday season."
PM Rishi Sunak said his "paramount priority is the safety of British nationals".
He added that Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden chaired a Cobra meeting on the wildfires yesterday.
"He's been monitoring the situation closely", Sunak said.
"The most important thing is people remain in touch with their tour operators, there are lots of flights going back and forth to be able to bring people home, and if people are in touch with their tour operators they will get the information that they need."
The first repatriation flights arrived on Monday to rescue Brit holidaymakers.
EasyJet will run two rescue flights with a total of 421 seats on Monday and a third on Tuesday, in addition to its nine scheduled flights to the Greek island.
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Over 250 firefighters, backed by aircraft water-bombers and reinforcements from Slovakia, battled three fronts in Rhodes on Sunday.
The flames have burned for nearly a week on the island after the country was hit by an extended spell of extreme heat that has made it challenging to contain the blaze.
The EU has sent 450 firefighters and seven planes to the country to help battle dozens of fires.
A British dad-of-four 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 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.
Tourist Ian Wakefield told Times Radio he spent the night in a school playground in Faliraki after being moved from his hotel in Pefki.
He said: "It didn't really feel real - being in imminent danger of being burned to death.
"Between midnight and around 5am this morning we were going through an evacuation which was pretty chaotic.
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"There were a lot of upset people and children who were understandably quite hysterical.
"It was all very confusing - the instructions from the hotel manager were unclear. You had to make your own choice in the end."
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