tourist boat rhodes fire

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Dozens of tourists are safely evacuated after their boat catches fire off Greek island of Rhodes

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ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Dozens of tourists were safely evacuated from a boat that caught fire Thursday off the Greek resort island of Rhodes, authorities said.

The coast guard said all passengers were safely taken to land after the blaze broke out about 300 meters (1,000 feet) offshore. Officials were not immediately able to say how many people had been on board.

State-run ERT TV said the boat was carrying 82 people and no one was hurt. It said the fire broke out as the vessel was sailing off the area of Archangelos on the island’s eastern coast.

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Rhodes wildfire forces thousands of evacuations, tourists flee

• Medium Text
• Greece moves 19,000 people to safety, some by boat
• Tourists flee hotels, gather on beaches
• "We went from paradise to hell," tourist says
• Operators cancel flights to Rhodes
• Climate change exacerbates heat waves

TEMPERATURE SPIKE STOKES FLAMES

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Reporting by Fedja Gruolvic in Rhodes, Renee Maltezou and Angeliki Koutantou in Athens; Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper and Hollie Adams in London, Christoph Steitz in Frankfurt, Andi Kranz in Cologne, Mathieu Rosemain in Paris and Justyna Pawkak in Warsaw; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Barbara Lewis, Frances Kerry and Chris Reese

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Greece: Tourists evacuated after wooden boat catches fire off coast

The fire started half an hour into the boat journey in Rhodes, according to local media. Passengers were reportedly evacuated on lifeboats back to shore and nobody was injured.

Sunday 2 July 2023 10:23, UK

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Raging Fires on Greek Island Force Thousands to Scramble for Refuge

As firefighters fought blazes kindled by tinder-dry conditions, the authorities sent tourists and residents on Rhodes to schools, gyms and boats moored at the port for shelter.

By Niki Kitsantonis

Reporting from Athens

For the sixth day in a row, firefighters were battling on Sunday to douse blazes on the Greek island of Rhodes that have trapped thousands of tourists and locals, forcing many to spend the night in hotel lobbies, gymnasiums, schools or boats docked at the port.

The Greek authorities said that no major injuries had been reported so far, though nine people had been briefly hospitalized, most with breathing problems. Some vacationers described a chaotic rescue effort and criticized travel operators for flying them to the island despite the raging fires.

Helen Tonks, a British tourist, said in a phone call that she arrived on Saturday evening with her husband and three children to a “living nightmare” on Rhodes. The hotel she had booked had already been evacuated, she said, and her family spent the night at a school that had been turned into a crisis center.

“We shouldn’t ever have come,” Ms. Tonks said, accusing the tour operator of ignoring customer safety. “At no point did they tell us there was risk,” she added. “It was just business as usual.”

The wildfires on Rhodes are among hundreds to have broken out across Greece in the past week, stoked by tinder-dry conditions as heat waves sweep the country. Other countries across Southern Europe have also struggled with the baking conditions and other extreme weather; some areas have matched or broken temperature records, while still others are experiencing violent storms.

Temperatures were set to reach 113 degrees Fahrenheit, about 45 degrees Celsius, in central Greece on Sunday, prompting the authorities to close the Acropolis and other ancient sites.

During the night, coast guard vessels moved thousands of people from seaside areas of Rhodes threatened by the fires to safer parts of the island. Television footage showed long lines of people, including many children, walking to safety under an orange sky, and crowds standing on beaches in the dark as officers helped them into rescue boats. Other images showed hundreds of people sprawled on mattresses in gymnasiums as volunteers distributed water.

According to Ioannis Artopios, a spokesman for the Greek fire service, about 19,000 people — locals and tourists, many of whom were Britons — were moved away from fires on the island on Saturday night. The resources of the fire service were further stretched on Sunday after a bridge collapsed in western Greece, in the city of Patras. At least one person died and eight others were hospitalized in that disaster, the authorities said, with firefighters continuing to search the rubble.

On Rhodes, Paul Kalburgi, a British playwright and screenwriter who was on vacation with his family, said that he was evacuated from three hotels on Saturday. The first time, he said, he and his family fled their hotel with wet towels over their heads, fearing for their lives. After the third evacuation, they spent the night in a hotel lobby, watching the flames in the distance, he added.

“The fires look terrifying in the darkness,” Mr. Kalburgi wrote in a message to a New York Times reporter late Saturday. On Sunday morning, he said, staff at the hotel where they were taking refuge told him that roads were open but that there were no cars or taxis and therefore no practical way to reach the island’s airport.

“It feels totally helpless. Where’s the help? Nobody knows anything,” Mr. Kalburgi noted. He said that he was hoping to leave on Sunday evening after managing to book plane tickets. “Fingers crossed we’ll make it to the airport,” he added.

Robert Sladden, an actor who arrived in Rhodes from London with his husband on Friday, said that they had followed only one instinct since flames started threatening their resort: “Getting away from the fire — hitchhiking, walking or taking buses.”

Mr. Sladden said that he could feel the heat from the flames even as they walked along a seafront road with thousands of others to try to get away. They stopped at a hotel, thinking to spend the night there, he added, but the blaze soon threatened that refuge, too, and they were forced to move on again.

Several other tourists described similarly harrowing experiences and outlined what they said were largely futile efforts to obtain advice from the travel agencies that had flown them to the island.

Firefighters were also battling a large blaze in the south of Evia, Greece’s second-largest island, close to Athens, whose northern section was ravaged by wildfires two years ago. The authorities ordered the evacuation of four villages in the island’s south on Sunday afternoon. And new fires broke out in central and southern Greece, and on the island of Corfu in the Ionian Sea, another popular destination for British visitors.

On Sunday, the British airline and tour operator Jet2 said it had canceled flights to Rhodes scheduled up to next Sunday. Another British operator, Tui, said that it had also canceled flights to Rhodes for the next few days, adding that the company was doing all it could to support customers on the island.

The Greek Foreign Ministry said on Sunday that it would set up a help desk at the Rhodes International Airport to assist tourists who might have lost passports in the evacuations.

As the authorities on Rhodes scrambled to help thousands leave the island, Greece’s transportation ministry said 14 departing flights with 2,700 passengers traveling with Tui and Jet2 were scheduled to leave the Rhodes airport through 3 a.m. on Monday.

But it also said that there would be a total of 44 flights — incoming and departing — before midnight, indicating that more people were flying to the island (it remained unclear how many of the arrivals were tourists).

Simon Warne, a Briton who traveled to Rhodes on Thursday for a wedding, said that he had spent Saturday night in a school on the island. Like others, he praised the kindness of local residents and volunteers during the chaotic, scary situation.

“Special mention to the locals though who at 4am brought us food, drink, towels,” he wrote on Twitter, adding that “some amazing lady just drove us 50km back to our hotel and would not accept any money, no matter how hard we tried.”

Ms. Tonks described a similar experience. “Locals are amazing,” she said. “It’s humbling.” Late Sunday, she was still stuck at the school.

Efforts to douse the fires, which were burning on three fronts on the island and were exacerbated by strong winds, continued on Sunday, Mr. Artopios, the fire service spokesman, told Greek television. Aircraft dropped water on the flames, and firefighters toiled through the night to protect residential areas, he added, noting that the relocation operation was the biggest ever in Greece.

Mr. Kalburgi, the British playwright, made it to the Rhodes airport with his family after booking a flight on Sunday evening to Crete, and he was hoping to persuade the airline to switch to a return flight to New Zealand, where he and his family live.

“I just sat on the floor at check-in and cried,” he wrote in a message. “Driving through the burnt roads was so upsetting. The local people have lost so much, and they have been so kind.”

Emma Bubola contributed reporting from London.

Niki Kitsantonis is a freelance correspondent for The Times based in Athens. She has been writing about Greece for 20 years, including more than a decade of coverage for The Times. More about Niki Kitsantonis

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British tourists leap into sea after huge fire engulfs wooden boat

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A group of terrified tourists were forced to jump overboard to escape a wooden ship after it burst into flames.

British holidaymakers were among 82 passengers who fled for their lives when the boat caught fire 300 metres from land off the Greek island of Rhodes on Thursday.

Families and young children plunged into the sea after the inferno rapidly ripped through an entire deck within minutes. 

Shocking pictures showed enormous flames engulfing the entire boat as thick black smoke poured into the sky.

Some escapees swam back to shore on Stegna beach in the town of Archangelos, while others piled into rescue boats that came to their aid.

Greek coast guard officials said everyone on board was eventually brought to safety before the ruins of the destroyed ship sank.

But witnesses say many were left ‘traumatised’ by the incident which saw a nine-year-old girl and 50-year-old woman suffer minor burn injuries, according to local reports .

The child and woman were taken to hospital but doctors say their condition isn’t serious.

Shaun Williams, an aircraft engineer from St Ives, Cornwall, said he was on a boat trip with his family while on holiday when the fire broke out. 

The 55-year-old said they were about half an hour into the trip when they stopped near Stegna beach, off the east coast of Rhodes, to go snorkelling. 

He told MailOnline : ‘We were on the top deck and the crew started shouting but we could not understand. We then saw the smoke.

‘The crew tried to fight the fire but the boat was made of wood and the fire grew quickly.’

Mr Williams said there was ‘a lot of panic’ with families with young children on board and the captain of the boat told everyone to ‘get in the sea’ after the crew handed out life jackets.

‘We all jumped in and I would say within a minute or two the place we had been standing was fully ablaze,’ he said.

A number of boats in the area came to their rescue and took the evacuated passengers back to shore, according to Mr Williams.

He added: ‘We had no injuries but my nine-year-old son was traumatised for some time.’

Emergency services, including firefighters, were called to the scene immediately after the fire broke out.

Stunned bystanders watched on in horror from the beach, with the huge smoke clouds out at sea clearly visible.

Greece’s Central Port Authority said it would take measures to deal with the marine pollution after the boat sank.

Greek authorities confirmed that fortunately no passengers were seriously hurt and were later transferred to their hotels by bus.

Last month, at least 78 people were killed after a boat capsized with 700 people on board .

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Locals, tourists flee wildfire on Greece's Rhodes island

Athens (AFP) – Locals and tourists fled hotspots on the Greek island of Rhodes on Sunday, as firefighters, backed by water jets and helicopters, battled a blaze that sparked the country's largest-ever fire evacuation.

Issued on: 23/07/2023 - 11:52 Modified: 23/07/2023 - 17:13

Wind gusts of up to 49 kilometres (31 miles) per hour were complicating efforts to bring the flames under control.

The island of Rhodes is one of Greece's most popular tourist destinations, particularly with British, German and French tourists -- many of whom were being rapidly moved out of the path of the flames.

As Greece has been battered by an extended spell of extreme heat, flames have burned for nearly a week on the island. Temperatures, which reached 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in central Greece on Sunday, were expected to dip on Monday before the mercury rises again for another four-day heatwave.

"This is the biggest fire evacuation ever in Greece," Konstantia Dimoglidou, Greek police spokeswoman told AFP.

"We had to evacuate an area of 30,000 people."

Police said that authorities had transported some 16,000 people across land, with 3,000 evacuated by sea, and others fleeing by road or under their own transport after being told to leave the area.

German travel giant Tui said it was suspending all of its inbound passenger flights to Rhodes until Tuesday but would fly in empty planes to help evacuate tourists.

Spokesperson Linda Jonczyk told AFP that Tui had some 40,000 tourists in Rhodes, of which 7,800 are affected by the fires.

The low-cost British carrier Jet2 also said it had cancelled "all flights and holidays" to the island.

One German tourist told the Bild daily that they were "saved from the fire at the last moment" after returning from the beach on Saturday to a deserted hotel.

"We had embers flying around our heads and no help was in sight," said 23-year-old Paul from Bielefeld.

"I had the feeling of being on my own, it was so hot and the smoke was already so thick we couldn't have survived another ten minutes."

He said buses then arrived to evacuate the tourists, but some were so panicked they were trying to find boats to escape on from the beach.

Authorities have warned that the battle to contain the flames -- raging in the middle of peak tourism season -- will take several days.

More than 260 firefighters, backed by 18 aircraft, were battling the fire on Sunday, with Croatia, France, Slovakia and Turkey having contributed equipment and personnel, officials said.

Last year Rhodes, which has a population of over 100,000, welcomed some 2.5 million tourist arrivals.

The fires reached the village of Laerma during the night, engulfing houses and a church, while many hotels were damaged by flames that had reached to the coast. Authorities evacuated 11 villages overnight as a precaution.

On Sunday the blaze was burning along three active fronts -- including on the southeast coast of the island where firefighters tried to prevent the blaze from crossing a creek.

'Leave everything'

Tourists and some locals spent the night in gyms, schools and hotel conference centres on the island.

The Greek foreign ministry and embassies in Greece were setting up a station at the Rhodes airport to help tourists that have lost travel documents in the scramble to evacuate.

TV footage broadcast by ERT Saturday showed a solo woman carrying her luggage through the smoke, looking disorientated.

Firefighters were heard shouting at her: "Madam, your life! Come here! Leave everything behind.'

A large part of the island was without electricity as the public power utility PPC shut down the local plant in the south for safety reasons.

"This is a special fire here because the heart of Rhodes and its environment is affected," Efthymios Lekkas, a professor specialising in natural disasters told ERT TV on Sunday, warning of a severe impact to the island's tourist industry.

"I just did a drive from Lindos to Gennadi," he said.

"All the big hotels have closed. I don't think they will be able to operate this year because the surrounding area in each unit has been completely destroyed, and the environment is not inspiring for a holiday."

The Greek presidency said it was cancelling a national holiday planned for Monday "in view of the extraordinary conditions prevailing in the country due to the fires."

A separate wildfire broke out on Greece's second-largest island, Evia, according to the fire services, although it was not near any homes.

Evia, situated off central Greece's eastern coast, was devastated last year by some of the worst wildfires in the country's history.

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Rhodes evacuees tell of terror as wildfire spreads across island

Jet2 and tui cancel all flights as more than 30,000 forced to leave in rescue operation.

A fireman holds a cat and two rabbits after rescuing them from a fire on the Greek island of Rhodes. AFP

Thousands of tourists have been evacuated from the Greek island of Rhodes in a major rescue operation as wildfires continue to rage.

On Sunday, Jet2 and Tui cancelled all flights to the island as authorities warned the situation was expected to get worse with high winds forecast.

Fires have been burning for nearly a week on the island as Greece has been hit by an extended spell of extreme heat that has made it challenging to contain the blaze.

More than 30,000 people were moved to safety on Saturday, including 2,500 who had to be ferried off beaches.

The Ministry of Climate Change and Civil Protection said it was “the largest evacuation from a wildfire in the country”.

"The wind is expected to become more intense from 12 to 5pm, without excluding the possibility that that could happen earlier," said fire department spokesman Vassilis Vathrakoyiannis.

It has led airlines to cancel all flights to the island.

"The situation in the southern part of Rhodes remains volatile and challenging," Tui said in a statement on Sunday.

"Due to this and considering the impact on local communities being affected, Tui has decided to cancel all flights and booked holidays to Rhodes for departures up to and including Tuesday, July 25."

Thousands of tourists and locals flee as wildfires rage on Greek island of Rhodes

Fires during the night reached the village of Laerma destroying houses, hotels and a church.

A recuse mission led to 16,000 people being evacuated by land and 3,000 by sea on Saturday.

Coastguard vessels and more than 30 private boats took part in an operation near beaches close to the areas of Kiotari and Lardos in the south-eastern part of the island.

About 10,000 tourists were evacuated by foot from 12 hotels and at least 2,000 others were rescued by sea, according to a report by CNN Greece.

Sports director Dan Jones, from Torquay, who was forced to flee the island with his three young children, described the local people as heroes for helping them.

“We are safe for now,” he tweeted.

“The scariest moment in my entire life. After wading into the sea and climbing on a fishing trawler, we are away from danger.

“The only heroes are the local people who have worked tirelessly to protect their residents but also us tourists. We will be forever grateful.”

We are safe for now. The scariest moment in my entire life. After wading into the sea and climbing on a fishing trawler, we are away from danger. I don’t know how they’ll process this when the dust settles, but what brave boys. 😢 💙 Family is everything #rhodes #wildfire pic.twitter.com/YGkcMaHMpg — Dan Jones (@DanJonesPE) July 22, 2023

Tourist Kevin Evans was evacuated twice with his wife and three young children and is now stranded in Rhodes town without accommodation and “no information from the authorities”.

“We were originally in Kiotari in a villa but were moved to Gennadi," he said.

“There were lots of people in Gennadi sent from the hotels – many in just swimsuits having been told to leave everything in the hotel.

“It got very crowded but we managed to get into a hotel in Gennadi with a room for the children and mums while the rest of us slept in the lobby.

“As night fell, we could see the fire on the top of the hills in Kiotari. They said all the hotels were on fire.

“About midnight the fire started moving onto our side of the hill. The roads were closed but we drove the long way round the island to get to Rhodes Town."

British tourist Ian Murison, from London, told Sky News his family were walked to a rescue boat in the Kiotari area of Rhodes.

"It was literally like the end of the world," he said.

"I can only describe it as almost a movie experience where everyone's looking into the sky as it got a very strange orange colour, and everybody was just looking around going, 'What's going on?'.

"Suddenly there were leaping flames into the sky, and the sky was completely orange in the distance – so that sort of set about a level of panic."

On Sunday morning, 266 firefighters and 49 engines on the ground were joined by five helicopters and 10 planes – seven Greek, two Turkish and one Croatian – to help put out the wildfires, authorities said. A further 15 engines were expected later in the day.

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has advised people on the island to monitor updates from the Foreign Office.

"The safety of British nationals is our top priority," he said on Twitter.

The safety of British Nationals is our top priority. I encourage those in Rhodes, and those with family and friends there, to continue checking FCDO travel advice for updates. https://t.co/kv6y9sGIar — James Cleverly🇬🇧 (@JamesCleverly) July 22, 2023

"I encourage those in Rhodes, and those with family and friends there, to continue checking FCDO travel advice for updates."

The British ambassador to Greece Matthew Lodge said the Foreign Office had sent a “rapid deployment team” to help UK tourists.

In Athens, the Greek Foreign Ministry said it had activated its crisis management unit as forest fires continued to burn.

“It is an unprecedented situation for the island,” Panagiotis Dimelis, head of the Archangelos village council, told Skai TV, adding that many locals had rushed to help the tourists.

From the moment the evacuation alert sounded early in the afternoon, tourists pulling suitcases began heading for the beach, some pushing prams carrying small children.

“We had set up firebreaks around the village of Laerma last night, but a 180-degree change of the winds this morning helped the fire grow much bigger across many kilometres … reaching a tourist area,” Konstantinos Taraslias, a deputy mayor of Rhodes, told Open TV.

Those evacuated are being housed at an indoor stadium and hotels on the island, Mr Taraslias said. Three passenger ferries were also used to host tourists during the night, the coastguard said.

The Foreign Ministry has announced it is co-ordinating with embassies to assist those who might have left their travel documents behind during the evacuation.

Firefighters, backed by air water bombers and reinforcements from Slovakia, struggled with new outbreaks of the wildfire, which has burnt for days and was being fanned by strong winds.

The fire has scorched vast areas of forest since breaking out in a mountainous area on Tuesday. It damaged three hotels in the seaside village of Kiotari on Saturday, according to the Athens News Agency.

Fire service spokesman Yannis Artopios said the residents of four areas were sent SMS messages to evacuate.

Civil protection authorities warned of a high risk of wildfires on Rhodes and other areas in Greece continuing on Sunday, as temperatures were expected to reach 45°C.

Fires are common in Greece but hotter, drier and windy summers have turned the country into a wildfire hotspot in recent years. Meteorologists have warned the current sweltering temperatures are expected to last until the end of the month.

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Rhodes fires: flights cancelled as thousands of tourists and residents evacuated on Greek island

It’s an island inferno.

As flames continue to lick coastal tourist areas after ripping through the mountainous interior of Rhodes, the Greek authorities say they’re dealing with the country’s biggest fire evacuation ever.

Nineteen thousand people have been rescued from villages and hotels – three thousand of those picked up in boats from the beaches where two days ago they were swimming and sunbathing.

Now the fire service is warning that things could get even worse with temperatures due to climb to 45 degrees in the next few days.

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Tourists Flee Wildfires on Greek Island of Rhodes

Tourists line up at check-in counters as they wait for departing planes at the airport, after being evacuated following a wildfire on the island of Rhodes, Greece, July 24, 2023. REUTERS/Nicolas Economou

By Fedja Grulovic

RHODES, Greece (Reuters) -Thousands of tourists and residents fleeing wildfires on the Greek island of Rhodes took refuge in schools and shelters on Sunday, with many evacuated on private boats as flames threatened resorts and coastal villages.

Thousands spent the night on beaches and streets during what Greece said was its biggest safe transport of residents and tourists in emergency conditions.

Some 19,000 people were moved from homes and hotels overnight as fires burning since Wednesday gathered pace, tearing through forests until the flames reached coastal resorts on the island's south-eastern coast.

Some holidaymakers said they walked for miles in scorching heat to reach safety. The fires left trees black and skeletal. Dead animals lay in the road near burnt-out cars.

Rhodes is a hugely popular holiday destination, particularly with visitors from Britain.

Tour operators Jet2, TUI and Correndon cancelled flights leaving for Rhodes, which lies southeast of mainland Greece and is famous for its beaches and historic sites.

"The smoke was coming. So we all set off on foot. I walked 12 miles (19 km) in this heat yesterday. It took me four hours," said British tourist Chris Freestone.

He spoke from a sports hall alongside evacuees lying on mattresses in the island's principal city, Rhodes Town, which was unaffected by the fires further south.

TUI said its teams were doing everything they could to support customers and had sent in additional staff in what it called "a difficult and evolving situation."

Another holidaymaker, Fay Mortimer from Cheshire in northern England, said the experience had been terrifying.

"I've never been so scared in my entire life," she said.

The Greek transport ministry said TUI and Jet2, which handle the bulk of tourism to Rhodes, planned 14 scheduled flights from Rhodes airport, transferring about 2,700 passengers until 0300 am local time (2400 GMT).

Shane and Charlie Murphy-Jones had been on Rhodes for a wedding when they received an alert to evacuate their rented villa on Saturday night. "We went from paradise to hell and it was crazy," Shane Murphy-Jones said after arriving at Gatwick airport in London late Sunday.

TEMPERATURE SPIKE STOKES FLAMES

Fires are common in Greece but climate change has led to more extreme heat waves across southern Europe and many parts of the world.

Temperatures over the past week have exceeded 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in many parts of Greece. In addition to Rhodes, emergency services were dealing with fires on the island of Evia, east of Athens and Aigio, southwest of Athens, and on the island of Corfu where authorities ordered the precautionary evacuation of a number of small settlements.

The fire on Corfu, an island which lies west of Greece, was burning on a large front. Boats in the area had been dispatched to evacuate residents by sea, a government official said.

A fire brigade official said the wildfires on Rhodes have affected 10% of hotels in the central and southeast parts of the island. The north and western parts were not affected. The government official who spoke of Corfu said the fires on Rhodes were largely contained.

Coastguard vessels and private boats carried more than 3,000 tourists from beaches on Saturday. Many people fled hotels when huge flames reached the seaside villages of Kiotari, Gennadi, Pefki, Lindos, Lardos and Kalathos. Crowds gathered in streets under a red sky while smoke hung over deserted shorelines.

Pictures and videos posted by tourists on social media showed local residents using their own cars or bundling tourists into trucks and pick-ups to take them to safety.

In Lindos, famed for an acropolis on a massive rock within medieval walls, a blaze charred the hillside and buildings.

Thanasis Virinis, a vice mayor of Rhodes, told Mega television on Sunday that between 4,000 and 5,000 people were in temporary accommodation.

Evacuees were taken to conference centres and school buildings, where they were given food, water and medical assistance, authorities said.

LOCAL GENEROSITY

British, Dutch, French and German citizens were among the tourists on Rhodes, which one hotelier said can receive 150,000 visitors at a time in peak season. The resident population of the island is around 125,000.

One British tourist thanked locals for their generosity, in an interview with Greek television, saying shops had refused payment for water and food and small boats had taken women and children to safety first, before returning for the men.

As crowds filled Rhodes airport, the Greek foreign ministry said it was setting up a helpdesk for people who had lost travel documents.

German travel association DRV said around 20,000 German tourists were on the island, but only a small proportion were affected by the evacuations.

More than 250 firefighters, assisted by 18 aircraft, set up firebreaks to shield a dense forest and more residential areas.

Nevertheless, some tourists were still arriving.

Pawel Kozlowski, from Warsaw, landed on Sunday afternoon and drove through Kiotari. "There are burnt cars, electrical lines are on the ground, we saw a broken electricity pole, still smoking. (It) looks like a war zone," he said.

(Reporting by Fedja Gruolvic in Rhodes, Renee Maltezou and Angeliki Koutantou in Athens; Additional reporting by Elizabeth Piper and Hollie Adams in London, Christoph Steitz in Frankfurt, Andi Kranz in Cologne, Mathieu Rosemain in Paris and Justyna Pawkak in Warsaw; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Barbara Lewis, Frances Kerry and Chris Reese)

Copyright 2023 Thomson Reuters .

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Brits desperately jump into sea to escape huge fire on boat in Greek holiday hotspot

British families were among dozens of tourists forced to evacuate a boat by diving into the sea after it caught fire off a beach in Rhodes, Greece, hundreds of metres from shore

• 17:06, 30 Jun 2023
• Updated 17:11, 30 Jun 2023

Dozens of tourists - including young children - were forced to dive into the sea after a boat went up in flames in Greece.

British holidaymakers were among those on board the vessel engulfed by fire off the island of Rhodes yesterday afternoon.

The incident occurred around 300 metres from Stenga beach in the town of Archangelos - with the captain handing out lifejackets and ordering passengers to jump.

The coast guard confirmed all 82 passengers were taken back to the land - with some rescued directly from the wooden vessel.

Witnesses have described how children involved were left "traumatised".

The boat was completely destroyed before disappearing into the sea.

Shaun Williams, from St Ives, Cornwall, and his family were among those on board.

The aircraft engineer, 55, said they had stopped near the beach to snorkel when the crew "started shouting".

He said they were on the top deck and couldn't understand what was being said before seeing smoke.

Shaun told the MailOnline : "The crew tried to fight the fire but the boat was made of wood and the fire grew quickly. They started handing out life jackets and a minute later the captain said we all need to get in the sea."

He described how families began to panic and with the stairs blocked off they had to climb over the railings and drop to the lower deck.

Shaun said he ordered his family to jump into the water and "shouted at others to do the same".

A couple of minutes later, the whole boat was engulfed, he added.

A video from the scene shows the fire having ripped through the vessel as a plume of smoke rises into the sky.

Passengers can be seen in a rescue boat.

Shaun said boats in the area all came to the scene to help ferry those in the water to the shore.

They were all taken to a restaurant to ensure everyone was accounted for before being taken to their accommodation by bus.

Greece's Central Port Authority said it would take measures to deal with the marine pollution resulting from the boat sinking.

Shaun said at midnight he was called by the Port Police to give a statement.

The British Consulate also spoke to him.

He added: "We had no injuries but my 9-year-old son was traumatised for some time."

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A Tour Boat Catches Fire Near Greek Island Of Rhodes

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A tour boat catches fire off the coast of Stegna on the island of Rhodes. According to news reports, a rescue operation evacuated 96 British tourists, as several nearby boats as well as vessels from local authorities came to the aid of the boat, which was identified as the Magellan. All passengers were evacuated safely and taken to the nearby resort town of Kolympia, news reports said. Local media reported that the boat had burnt out completely and that the captain had been arrested.

A tour boat catches fire off the coast of Stegna on the island of Rhodes.

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• Environment

The fires in Rhodes have spared tourism, but not the island's nature

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Feature The Greek island saw 15% of its land burn between July 18 and 28. While resorts are preparing to reopen, locals feel they have been abandoned – as has the island's nature.

Even during their worst tantrums, the Greek gods never triggered an eruption on Rhodes. Unlike its cousin Santorini, the Aegean island is not volcanic. However, the desolate landscape left behind by 10 days of fire between July 18 and 28 is reminiscent of an immense lava flow that swept down the mountain into the sea. The major fire caused no human casualties but ravaged almost 18,000 hectares of forest and vegetation (around 15% of the island's surface area), burnt 50,000 olive trees, trapped thousands of animals including 2,500 domestic animals, destroyed or damaged around 50 buildings and led to the mass evacuation of 20,000 tourists in the southeast of the island.

Not everyone left. On a burnt-out beach at the entrance to the seaside resort of Kiotari, a Norwegian couple sat in small armchairs by the water, their backs to the emerald sea, facing the scorching sun and with cans in hand. The parasol was mainly used to keep Mythos, the local beer, cool in the cooler. "It's very sad, it was paradise here last week," said Monica Stenberg, crimson from head to toe but loyal to Rhodes for 30 years. In her swimsuit amid the rubble, her partner Johansen showed a friend the extent of the damage on a video call.

The vegetation lining the cove was charred. Showers, duckboards, parasols and beach mattresses were consumed by the flames. The chic beach bar (350 covers) with its arbor and large wooden terrace became a pile of rubble. Two employees went to inspect what could be salvaged. The verdict: "Nothing." On the phone, the owner, who goes by Manolis so as not to give his name, railed against the "incompetence" of the authorities and the firemen who "didn't even try" to save his bar. He does not know if he will rebuild. He had opened it two months ago but did not have all of the permits he needed.

When the fire truck rushed by, Dimitris Chatzifotis got onto the road and shouted to get their attention. The vehicle did not stop, and his restaurant burned down. The Angelaki Taverna was an institution in the region: For 32 years, people had been going there to enjoy the famous dish of oven-braised goat cheese accompanied by a sauce made with tomatoes from the garden. The vegetable garden was littered with the corpses of hens. Chatzifotis' mother used to raise around 60 of them to prepare creamy omelets for her customers. They all perished. Of the nine rabbits ("for the children, not to eat," said Chatzifotis), only Arapis, black as the trunks of the charred fig trees, survived. Today, he was eating leftover watermelon.

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Warning for tourists in Greece after four dead & more missing in record temperatures

Greece has issued an urgent warning to travellers after the death of four holidaymakers during a severe heatwave .

Authorities issued a level three heat alert following three consecutive days where the mercury exceeded 38C, forcing the closure of the Acropolis and other tourist sites.

Greek state TV meteorologist Panos Giannopoulos said: “In the 20th century we never had a heatwave before 19 June. We have had several in the 21st century, but none before 15 June.”

Many primary schools and nurseries across the country were closed to protect students from the heat, which is expected to recede on Saturday.

In Athens , tourists stopped at drinking fountains to cool their heads and necks. Locals sat in air conditioned rooms set up by the city, using hand held fans to create a breeze.

The Acropolis hill is home to the Parthenon, one of the world’s most famous archaeological sites. More than four million people visited the site last year.

Earlier on Tuesday, a fire at a cookware and food container factory in an area north of Athens sent clouds of thick black smoke into the sky.

Fourteen fire trucks and 42 firefighters were sent to the incident in the suburb of Kifisa.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

Last year, rising temperatures fuelled wildfires that tore through popular holiday destinations including Corfu and Rhodes.

In August, a fire in the northern Evros region destroyed an area larger than New York City and killed at least 20 people - the deadliest European blaze of 2023.

Erratic rain also caused some of the worst flooding on record, damaging crops and livelihoods.

Similar conditions were seen last year across much of southern Europe, including Portugal , France, Spain and Italy where fires caused dozens of deaths.

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Savvino-storozhevsky monastery and museum.

Zvenigorod's most famous sight is the Savvino-Storozhevsky Monastery, which was founded in 1398 by the monk Savva from the Troitse-Sergieva Lavra, at the invitation and with the support of Prince Yury Dmitrievich of Zvenigorod. Savva was later canonised as St Sabbas (Savva) of Storozhev. The monastery late flourished under the reign of Tsar Alexis, who chose the monastery as his family church and often went on pilgrimage there and made lots of donations to it. Most of the monastery’s buildings date from this time. The monastery is heavily fortified with thick walls and six towers, the most impressive of which is the Krasny Tower which also serves as the eastern entrance. The monastery was closed in 1918 and only reopened in 1995. In 1998 Patriarch Alexius II took part in a service to return the relics of St Sabbas to the monastery. Today the monastery has the status of a stauropegic monastery, which is second in status to a lavra. In addition to being a working monastery, it also holds the Zvenigorod Historical, Architectural and Art Museum.

Belfry and Neighbouring Churches

Located near the main entrance is the monastery's belfry which is perhaps the calling card of the monastery due to its uniqueness. It was built in the 1650s and the St Sergius of Radonezh’s Church was opened on the middle tier in the mid-17th century, although it was originally dedicated to the Trinity. The belfry's 35-tonne Great Bladgovestny Bell fell in 1941 and was only restored and returned in 2003. Attached to the belfry is a large refectory and the Transfiguration Church, both of which were built on the orders of Tsar Alexis in the 1650s.  

To the left of the belfry is another, smaller, refectory which is attached to the Trinity Gate-Church, which was also constructed in the 1650s on the orders of Tsar Alexis who made it his own family church. The church is elaborately decorated with colourful trims and underneath the archway is a beautiful 19th century fresco.

Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral

The Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral is the oldest building in the monastery and among the oldest buildings in the Moscow Region. It was built between 1404 and 1405 during the lifetime of St Sabbas and using the funds of Prince Yury of Zvenigorod. The white-stone cathedral is a standard four-pillar design with a single golden dome. After the death of St Sabbas he was interred in the cathedral and a new altar dedicated to him was added.

Under the reign of Tsar Alexis the cathedral was decorated with frescoes by Stepan Ryazanets, some of which remain today. Tsar Alexis also presented the cathedral with a five-tier iconostasis, the top row of icons have been preserved.

Tsaritsa's Chambers

The Nativity of Virgin Mary Cathedral is located between the Tsaritsa's Chambers of the left and the Palace of Tsar Alexis on the right. The Tsaritsa's Chambers were built in the mid-17th century for the wife of Tsar Alexey - Tsaritsa Maria Ilinichna Miloskavskaya. The design of the building is influenced by the ancient Russian architectural style. Is prettier than the Tsar's chambers opposite, being red in colour with elaborately decorated window frames and entrance.

At present the Tsaritsa's Chambers houses the Zvenigorod Historical, Architectural and Art Museum. Among its displays is an accurate recreation of the interior of a noble lady's chambers including furniture, decorations and a decorated tiled oven, and an exhibition on the history of Zvenigorod and the monastery.

Palace of Tsar Alexis

The Palace of Tsar Alexis was built in the 1650s and is now one of the best surviving examples of non-religious architecture of that era. It was built especially for Tsar Alexis who often visited the monastery on religious pilgrimages. Its most striking feature is its pretty row of nine chimney spouts which resemble towers.

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