Britons tell of ‘terrifying’ and ‘traumatic’ experiences amid Rhodes wildfires

Thousands of holidaymakers have been rescued from fire-hit parts of the Greek holiday island while others are having to cancel planned trips.

A wildfire burns in Gennadi village (Petros Giannakouris/AP) (AP)

British holidaymakers returning from Rhodes have told of their “terrifying” and “traumatic” experiences on the Greek island as it continues to be ravaged by wildfires.

Thousands of Britons have been rescued from fire-hit parts of the popular holiday island while others are having to cancel planned trips.

As many as 10,000 Britons are estimated to be in Rhodes, the Foreign Office said, with 30,000 due to head there in the next few weeks, according to The Times.

The Foreign Office has not advised Britons to avoid non-essential travel to the entire island, while some travel companies are continuing to fly holidaymakers to Rhodes as they claim the blazes are not affecting the whole island.

Repatriation flights continued to land in the UK on Tuesday after rescuing holidaymakers who had been sleeping in schools, sports centres and airports.

One mother said her family had spent just two hours in their holiday villa while a newlywed couple spending their honeymoon on the island said they heard a child caught up in thick smoke scream “I don’t want to die”.

Mother-of-two Clare Gorick, 46, said she, her husband James and sons Harry, 13 and Wilfie, 10, spent just two hours at a villa they had booked.

Mrs Gorick, from Ely in Cambridgeshire, told the PA news agency: “We went out to the supermarket and then weren’t allowed back so we had to stay in an apartment in the city on the first night, and then we were told we could go back, which we did, but we were only there for an hour, there was smoke everywhere, ash everywhere, and then we heard sirens and police shouting for us to get out again.

“And you could just see the fire coming towards us. It was really frightening, a huge amount of smoke.

“At one point you couldn’t see any of the mountains in the distance because the smoke was so bad and then the flames, once it got dark you could see the flames.

“Lots of locals were really upset. There was lots of tears, people crying as they were driving off.

“Hundreds of coaches coming towards us to pick up people from the villages, they were absolutely packed.

“I’ve just sat next to somebody on the plane who said their hotel burnt down and they were sleeping in a hotel lobby for three nights and her mother had ended up in hospital because of smoke inhalation.”

Newlywed couple Claire and Paul Jones, both 36, from Leicestershire, were moved on Saturday by coach from the Village Rhodes Beach Resort near Lardos.

Mrs Jones told PA: “It was really quite traumatic driving to where we went because you could see everyone fleeing their hotels, and people were walking along the beaches, walking along the roads, and they had babies and small children.”

Dominic Doggett, 30, and his fiancee Hannah Dolman, 28, stayed on the floor of an office in a hotel after their wedding reception came to an “abrupt end”.

Claire Pickett, 37, said people were “pushing and shoving” in the water as they tried to climb aboard rescue boats.

Ms Pickett, who was with her husband Golan Lambranzi and their two-year-old daughter Alice, told PA: “The scariest bit was getting on to the first boat because you are just in the water and people were pushing and shoving, so it was just, ‘we’ve got children, let us on the boat’. But once I was on the boat I was fine.”

Sarah George, 39, told of her concern after opening a bar on the island a few weeks before the wildfires hit.

Ms George, originally from Edinburgh, opened the La Presidenta in Lindos with her partner Dimitris Savvaidis in mid-July after “a lot of setbacks”.

She told PA: “Things were going beautifully and now this has all happened.

“Obviously this is less than ideal, it’s a worry about what’s going to happen in the years to come.”

Consumer champion Which? said: “Some companies dragged their feet on updating flexible booking policies, forcing them to choose between travelling into a natural disaster zone, or sensibly cancelling and losing their money as a result.

“Without a Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office warning against travel to the affected regions, travellers who don’t want to go but are refused flexibility to rebook are likely to be left holding the bill for acting sensibly, and will be unable to claim on their travel insurance.”

It urged holidaymakers due to visit the island in the coming weeks not to cancel now as they may not get a refund.

Thomas Cook said holidaymakers who “choose to do so” continue to arrive in other parts of the island while easyJet said it had only cancelled package holidays to affected areas.

The airline operated two repatriation flights from Rhodes to the UK on Tuesday on top of six regular flights that were already scheduled.

It is advising customers to check the status of their flight online and holidaymakers travelling there can, until July 29, put their flight back for free to another date or request a flight voucher.

An easyJet pilot warned 37 passengers on a 180-capacity plane heading to Rhodes from Gatwick that it was a “bad idea” to travel to the island, BBC Wales reported.

Holiday firm Jet2 said it had cancelled all flights and holidays to Rhodes until Sunday and around 1,000 Britons in affected areas have either flown home or moved to hotels in unaffected parts of the island.

It said it will make a decision on what happens beyond Sunday in the coming days.

Tui had carried out five repatriation flights by Tuesday morning and has cancelled all flights to Rhodes up to and including Friday, with holidays scrapped for those going to affected hotels before and on Sunday.

Travel firms have increased numbers of staff based on the island.