19,000 evacuate as wildfires rage near hotels in Rhodes, Greece

As wildfires raged for a sixth day on three fronts, around 19,000 people have been evacuated from Rhodes, according to Greek officials.

According to the Ministry of Climate Change and Civil Protection, this was “the largest evacuation from a wildfire in the country.

According to local authorities, 12 villages and many hotels required the evacuation of 16,000 people by land and 3,000 by sea.

A hospital provided brief respiratory treatment to six patients. A pregnant woman who was in good condition and a person who fell and shattered their leg during a hotel evacuation both remained in hospitals, according to officials.

Jet2 and TUI, two tour operators, have canceled flights to Rhodes. Jet2 announced that it would cancel five of its regularly scheduled passenger flights to the island on Sunday but would still send the aircraft to Rhodes empty in order to pick up passengers.

According to TUI, all of its flights to the island have been canceled until at least Tuesday.

As of early Sunday afternoon, 266 firefighters, 49 engines, and hundreds of volunteers were working on the ground, according to Fire Brigade spokesman Yannis Artopios.

Ten firefighting aircraft, including eight helicopters and two each from France, Turkey, and Croatia, are in the region.

The European Union has sent in a significant number of reinforcements.

As fires spread around the nation, more than 450 firefighters and seven airplanes from the EU have been working in Greece, according to a tweet from EU Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarcic early on Sunday afternoon.

Firefighters have been working to prevent the wildfire from spreading to surrounding dense forests in the hilly region of Rhodes, which is an active front of the conflagration.