Greece wildfires: Co Down man Stuart praises locals on Rhodes who brought food and water

Stuart Johnston said he and his partner were woken by shouts of ‘evacuate’ in the early hours of Sunday morning.

They and other guests were brought to a school an hour away from the resort, but were left with no beds and no supplies at first.

"There was just car after car bringing in cases of water, fruit, food, it was unbelievable scenes from the locals – we would have been in the middle of nowhere without even as much as a drop of water to drink.

"The electricity was off and on, the water was on when we arrived, so we could use the bathrooms to wash and use the loos, but the water did go off around 8.30am, so we couldn’t use the toilets.”

Mr Johnston is now back at his hotel where he feels safe, and plans to leave on his scheduled flight on Wednesday.

"You can't go too many places on the island without seeing the flames and fire," he added.

Former First Minister Arlene Foster revealed how she had initially been “oblivious” to the wildfires on Rhodes as she holidayed there last week,

Speaking to GB News, Dame Arlene she said: "The thing is I had a wonderful holiday and was quite oblivious to what was going on on other parts of the island until Saturday when I was due to leave (that evening),” she said.

"We had been to such beautiful places in Rhodes, including a gorgeous little restaurant by the beach – and on Saturday evening I found out it was completely burnt to the ground.

"When we were taking off on early Sunday morning, we could look back and see the fires raging on the ground. I had been walking around the town that day, no one was concerned but when I got to the airport that’s when I got concerned.”

Up to 10,000 British nationals are thought to be on the Greek island, which has been ravaged by flames, and holiday firms are scrambling to get them home.

Crete is the latest Greek island to have been placed under the highest warning level as fears grow the island could be the next victim of raging wildfires in Greece. Around 2,500 people have already been evacuated from Corfu, fire officials said, which is experiencing dozens of wildfires, after the blaze in Rhodes prompted “the biggest evacuation” in Greek history.

Airlines have revealed their plans to get Northern Ireland travellers back home safely:

Jet2

​​Jet2 has confirmed its next scheduled flight from Rhodes to Belfast will depart tomorrow night (July 25) as wildfires continue to ravage the Greek island. The company is operating three repatriation flights from Rhodes to Manchester, Leeds Bradford and Birmingham tonight.

easyJet

easyJet said it still has availability on scheduled flights to Belfast from Rhodes in the coming days which customers can transfer to. “Alternatively if customers wish to travel on repatriation flights today or tomorrow to Gatwick, we would reimburse them for any onward travel to Belfast, ” a spokesperson said.

Tui

Tui said it had cancelled all flights to Rhodes up to and including Friday as well as all flights for customers travelling to impacted hotels up to and including Sunday, with passengers receiving full refunds.

Those due to travel to unaffected areas on Saturday and Sunday can change to another holiday free of charge or cancel for a full refund.

It is still operating empty outbound flights to bring customers on holiday elsewhere in Rhodes home “as planned”. Flights are still operating for customers booked to travel to or from Rhodes before July 29, but if they would like to change their plans, customers can change the date of their flight or request a flight voucher.

Thomas Cook

Thomas Cook is contacting customers due to travel to hotels in Lardos and Kiotari – the areas most at risk – up to and including Monday July 31 with offers of full refunds or the choice to amend their holidays.

It will contact all customers travelling to Rhodes in coming weeks in order of departure date.

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