Rhodes fires: Former DUP leader Arlene Foster narrowly missed being evacuated after dramatic change in wind direction sent wildfires towards her village

But by Saturday afternoon the area where she had been staying was hit by wildfires and a beach restaurant she had used was burnt to the ground.

"I was staying down in a little place called Gennadi which is just below Lindos Lardos, all the places where the fire raged, on Saturday afternoon. So it was pretty close."

She was unaware of the fires for most of her stay.

It was only really on Saturday afternoon that waiters in Rhodes town told them that the fires had become quite serious.

"And then we started to realise from social media that places we had visited had actually been really badly affected. That was within a very short period of time after we left."

The winds began to pick up on Saturday and changed direction spreading the fires "quite dramatically".

If she had stayed much longer she would probably have had to evacuate, she said.

The five star resort hotels they passed regularly in Kiotari were later evacuated.

Airport staff told her it was normal to have wildfires but that this was the worst in a very long time.

"One of the little beach restaurants that we had been at was completely gone. I mean, It had just been burnt to the ground."

The locals were quite relaxed about the fires up until Saturday because they were limited to high mountainous areas.

"But because the wind changed it brought the fires down towards the tourist areas which are all down on the coast on the eastern side."

After leaving their hotel on Saturday morning they drove up to Rhodes town on the coastal road.

"But if we had left it until the afternoon to come up that road we probably wouldn't have been able to get past.

"I feel very sorry for the Greek people because they really rely on the tourism season for their income and now this has been completely taken away."