Rhodes wildfire escape ‘like the end of the world’ – British survivorIan Murison, from London, is among the British tourists who was rescued from the beach in Rhodes by the small boats operation.
He was staying in the Kiotari area of Rhodes, on the southeast of the island near to Lindos, when the wildfires approached his hotel on Saturday.
He told Sky News he was having breakfast on the beach when the sky turned orange and dark.
“We noticed that the sea had started to become black with soot and actually people were coming out of the sea noticing ash was falling on to their heads.
“I can only describe it as almost a movie experience where everyone’s looking into the sky as it got a very strange orange colour, and everybody was just looking around going, ‘what’s going on?’”
Mr Murison said management started to evacuate his hotel but there were not enough vehicles, so he and his family started walking 5km down the road, eventually getting a lift to Gennadi beach.
People evacuate by boats during a wildfire in Kiotari village
(EPA)
“When we arrived, it was just a few hundred people – there were a couple of cafes and bars and they were serving beers and soft drinks, and everybody was just happy, thinking ‘great, we’ve got away from the fire’.
“And then over the next few hours, the amount of people in that area just increased and increased, and then as light fell, people became increasingly anxious about how they were going to get out from this.”
Mr Murison said they were told boats were on their way to collect them, triggering a rush of people to a nearby car park.
“It was literally like the end of the world,” he said.
“And the flames were now far more visible because of course it’s night-time and we couldn’t see that during the day.
“Suddenly there were leaping flames into the sky, and the sky was completely orange in the distance – so that sort of set about a level of panic.”
The place was littered with suitcases because they were throwing them off the boats
Ian Murison
Mr Murison said he and his family got on to one of the small boats that were taking people out to bigger vessels to transport them north to Rhodes Town.
“There were still hundreds of people, maybe a thousand people, on the beach when we left it, and the place was littered with suitcases because they were throwing them off the boats.”
Reflecting on his ordeal, Mr Murison said: “The mood was general panic.
“By the time it gets to getting on to the boats and things like that, there’s a lot of pushing and shoving, and there’s a lot of people, a lot of children crying as well.
“So I’m glad that’s all behind us now. Hopefully we can just finish up… in a bit of a calmer mood.”
