After weekend of wildfire evacuations, Greece expects hot and dry conditions to continue

Temperatures in Greece were expected to dip on Monday, but rise again Tuesday.

ByKevin Shalvey
July 24, 2023, 4:23 AM

LONDON -- Mass evacuations continued over the weekend in Rhodes, the popular tourist destination, as wildfires swept toward other villages, cities and tourist destinations throughout Greece.

About 19,000 residents and tourists left villages along the southeastern coast of Rhodes, near Kiotari, with some evacuating via boats, officials said.

Emergency services were fighting blazes around the country through Monday morning, including several near Athens, the capital.

PHOTO: A firefighting plane drops water over a wildfire burning near Asklipio, on the island of Rhodes, Greece, July 23, 2023.
A firefighting plane drops water over a wildfire burning near Asklipio, on the island of Rhodes, Greece, July 23, 2023.
Lefteris Damianidis/Reuters

Some of those blazes have been burning since early last week, when Greece requested the activation of the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism, a coordinated rescue and humanitarian assistance, to fight wildfires near Athens, officials said. Firefighters and equipment arrived last week from several European countries and Israel.

"Greece is handling this difficult situation with professionalism, putting emphasis on safely evacuating thousands of tourists, and can always count on European solidarity," EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Sunday. "EU firefighters are already on the ground."

Residents of some villages in Corfu were warned late Sunday that they should begin evacuating. The villages of Viglatouri and Nisaki were asked evacuate to Barbati, 112 Greece, the country's emergency hotline, said in an alert.

PHOTO: Smoke rises from a wildfire on Corfu Island, Greece, July 23, 2023. in this still image obtained from social media video.
Smoke rises from a wildfire on Corfu Island, Greece, July 23, 2023. in this still image obtained from social media video.
Julia Dzhyzhevska via Reuters

Temperatures around the country were expected to dip on Monday, with the highest relief coming in eastern Greece, the Hellenic National Meteorological Service said in a warning.

But the heat was expected to return in full force on Tuesday, with highs between about 107 and 111 degrees, local weather officials said. Southern Europe has for days been in the grip of a searing heat wave.

PHOTO: A false colour satellite image, which uses the infrared signature of the fire, shows the area affected by wildfires in Rhodes, Greece, July 23, 2023.
A false colour satellite image, which uses the infrared signature of the fire, shows the area affected by wildfires in Rhodes, Greece, July 23, 2023.
European Union/copernicus Sentin/via Reuters

The harsh weather conditions in Greece were "expected to intensify early this week," Deputy Fire Chief Ioannis Artophios said in a video update posted Saturday. Greek officials were expecting much of the country to have very low humidity and high winds, along with high temperatures.

PHOTO: A man tries to extinguish a wildfire burning at Kiotari, on the island of Rhodes, Greece, July 23, 2023.
A man tries to extinguish a wildfire burning at Kiotari, on the island of Rhodes, Greece, July 23, 2023.
Lefteris Damianidis/Reuters

"This extreme situation we are experiencing will further favor the occurrence and spread of forest fires," Artophios said, according to a translated transcript.

TUI, a popular airline for tourists flying from Britain to Greece, cancelled all outgoing flights to Rhodes for Monday and Tuesday. Another airline, Jet 2, cancelled all flights to Rhodes through July 30.

PHOTO: A fireman gestures and holds a cat and two rabbits after rescuing them from a fire between the villages of Kiotari and Gennadi, on the Greek island of Rhodes on July 24, 2023.
A fireman gestures and holds a cat and two rabbits after rescuing them from a fire between the villages of Kiotari and Gennadi, on the Greek island of Rhodes on July 24, 2023.
Spyros Bakalis/AFP via Getty Images

"We will fly those aircraft to Rhodes with no customers onboard," Jet 2 said in a statement," so that we can continue to bring customers back to the UK on their scheduled flights."

About 10% of Rhodes' tourist capacity had been affected by wildfires last week, Greece's Civil Protection officials said on social media on Friday.

When Doyle and Kris Noe woke up Saturday at a resort in Rhodes, they found that the wildfires had been moving closer overnight, Kris Noe wrote on Facebook on Sunday.

PHOTO: Wildfire smoke is seen in Rhodes, Greece, in a photo taken Sunday, July 23, 2023, by Doyle and Kris Noe.
Wildfire smoke is seen in Rhodes, Greece, in a photo taken Sunday, July 23, 2023, by Doyle and Kris Noe.
Doyle and Kris Noe

"By lunch we were very concerned and they evacuated us to the beach road and told us to start walking at 2:15p," she wrote. "We walked 5 miles to get where we could breathe again without masks."

From there, the pair were moved to a nearby school, then sent on an hourlong bus ride to Rhodes airport.

"No hotels were available so the airport floor was a first for us," Kris Noe wrote. "But we were safe, had food, water and bathrooms."

ABC News' Rashid Haddou, Ellie Kaufman and Matthew Holroyd contributed to this story.