A weeklong wildfire on the Greek resort island of Rhodes tore past defenses Monday, forcing more evacuations, as three major fires raged elsewhere in the country fueled by strong winds and successive heat waves that left scrubland and forests tinder-dry.
The latest evacuations were ordered in south Rhodes after 19,000 people, mostly tourists, were moved in buses and boats over the weekend out of the path of the fire that reached several coastal areas from nearby mountains. Authorities have called it the in Greece's history. Another 2,500 people have been evacuated from the island of Corfu in response to fires there.
Greece is using an EU satellite service to estimate the damage caused by the fires and to target resources. Photographs published online by the service showed a brown hourglass-shaped burn scar across the middle of the island. Flames burn a hill on the Aegean Sea island of Rhodes, southeastern Greece, on Monday, July 24, 2023.Help continued to arrive from the European Union and elsewhere, with firefighting planes from neighboring Turkey joining the effort in Rhodes, where 10 water-dropping planes and 10 helicopters buzzed over flames up to 16 feet tall despite low visibility.
"You could see an orange glow in the sky and it got more and more, big balls of fire going into the sky," he said, describing chaotic scenes as evacuees crowded to board small boats arriving to take them off the beach.
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