Brit families facing ‘living nightmare’ in Rhodes fires as they sleep on floors in shelters while waiting for rescue

UK families face a ‘living nightmare’ in Rhodes after fleeing burning hotels and awaiting rescue on shelter floors.

The first repatriation flights are due to arrive on the fire-ravaged Greek island today to rescue thousands of Britons stranded as bushfires rage.

Fleeing Britons sought refuge in gyms and schools Credit: Getty

Many families sleep in airports while waiting for repatriation flights Credit: Darren Fletcher

Thousands of tourists forced to flee as fires engulfed Rhodes

On Rhodes, more than 16,000 people were evacuated by land and 3,000 by sea from 12 towns and several hotels, many of them British who were forced to flee for their lives.

Now locals and tourists are also being evacuated from much of Corfu as more fires rage across the country on Sunday.

People in the Santa, Megoula, Porta, Palia, Perithia and Sinies areas of the island were told to leave immediately.

Both easyJet and Jet2 plan repatriation flights to Rhodes today to bring the Brits home.

EasyJet will operate two rescue flights to Rhodes with a total of 421 seats on Monday and a third on Tuesday, in addition to its nine scheduled flights to the island.

One such evacuation flight landed in Manchester this morning and exhausted-looking families hugged their loved ones tightly.

A Foreign Office spokesman confirmed that a rapid deployment team had arrived in Rhodes to help passenger operators repatriate Britons.

Over the weekend, unusual scenes showed columns of people carrying their luggage and children on dirt roads trying to find salvation.

Most of the fleeing Britons spent the night in makeshift camps across the island, with young children forced to sleep on mattresses in classrooms, gyms and stadiums.

Others took refuge on the beach for the weekend, often waiting in the dark for boats to take them to safety.

Helen Tonks, a mother of six, from Cheshire, said Tui took her to a “living nightmare” at 11pm on Saturday to find her hotel was closed.

She said she and her family were “abandoned” and forced to sleep with hundreds of people on the school floor.

Helen told The Sun: “There was absolutely no communication. We came here and they told us that our hotel was among the evacuees.

“There are hundreds of us here. We are housed in makeshift dormitories in classrooms.

Dozens sleep on mattresses on the gym’s basketball court.”

Connie Woods, from Northern Ireland, slept at the school for two nights after escaping a fire that ripped through her hotel.

She said hundreds were staying at the school: “it’s getting very crowded,” she told the BBC.

“So many small children, families without luggage, newborn babies. It’s horrible.”

Some flights from Rhodes were delayed on Sunday night and there were further delays during night flights.

Other easyJet, Jet2 and Ryanair flights from Rhodes will arrive at Gatwick, Stansted and Bristol this afternoon.

Tui, which had 40,000 tourists on Rhodes, 7,800 of whom were affected by the fires, canceled all its flights to the island until Wednesday but said those already on Rhodes would return on their scheduled flights.

An easyJet spokeswoman said it was doing “everything possible” to help customers in Rhodes and urged those traveling to or from the island until Saturday to change their dates free of charge.

British Airways says its flights are operating as normal, but those who return early can change flights for free.

More than 250 firefighters, aided by bomber planes and reinforcements from Slovakia, battled three fronts of flames in Rhodes on Sunday, prompting the largest fire evacuation ever seen in Greece.

The flames have been burning for almost a week on the island after a prolonged period of extreme heat gripped the country, making it difficult to contain the flames.

Are you currently in Rhodes? Tell us your story! Contact the external desk at: [email protected] or [email protected]

So far 19,000 people have been evacuated Credit: Rex

Passenger Shane Murphy-Jones arrived at Gatwick airport from Greece this afternoonCredit: Reuters

Tourists sleep at Rhodes airport as they wait to be evacuatedCredit: Reuters

A man holds his son as they flee the burning town

The consequences of the fire that devastated the townCredit: Getty

A British father of four described the hell his family endured as they fled the hell of Rhodes in the dead of night.

Physical education teacher Daniel Jones said he had to dive to the depths of the ocean to get his young family onto a recreational boat to escape the pursuing flames.

“It was a nightmare, our holidays were ruined, the children were traumatised,” he told The Sun.

“There was still a lot of confusion, it was crazy. There was no representative or anyone to tell us what was going on.

“There was a point where you could clearly see the flames approaching but there were no escape boats, I felt completely powerless to protect my family.”

British tourist 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 horizon was covered in smoke, fire trucks and police ran past us and suddenly we couldn’t see anything.

“The driver did not speak English and we had no idea what was going on.”

They never made it to the hotel and instead slept on a sheet on the hotel floor while they waited for their flight to get out of the chaos.

“We are not in a bad position like other people, but no one knows anything and Tui just tells us to sit and wait,” he added.

Another British tourist, Mark, and his pregnant wife who landed last night accused Tui of “throwing us into a war zone.”

On the way to the hotel, the police diverted them to the basketball stadium.

“What he saw was a building full of people sleeping on the floor and the screams of children,” he told Sky News.

“They told me that I was not allowed to enter as [it was] Too crowded, but my pregnant wife was.”

Instead, Mark had to sit in the parking lot for hours until a Greek woman rescued him and gave them his bed.

– Also brought another family with four small children.

It comes as Greece continues to face high temperatures, with up to 45C forecast this week.

The country also experienced an “insidious and dangerous” heat stroke earlier this month, when temperatures reached 40°C.

Meteorology experts have declared 2023 the year of El Niño, a natural phenomenon that occurs cyclically and causes fluctuations in the global climate.

The UN World Meteorological Organization said temperatures will rise worldwide and the effect is likely to continue until the end of the year.

And despite the heat this summer, the European temperature record of 48.8°C, set in 2021 in Sardinia, Sicily, has not been reached and is currently not expected to be broken.