Firefighters were struggling through the night to contain 82 wildfires across Greece, 64 of which started Sunday, the hottest day of the summer so far.
Their ongoing efforts were without the help of firefighting planes and helicopters, which do not operate at night.
Local police said 16,000 people were evacuated by land and 3,000 by sea from 12 villages and several hotels. Six people were briefly treated at a hospital for respiratory problems. A person who fell and broke a leg during a hotel evacuation and a pregnant woman remained hospitalized, the latter in good condition, authorities said.A number of tourists have been waiting to fly back home from Rhodes International Airport. Package holiday companies TUI and Jet2 cancelled flights to Rhodes.
"There were lots of people in Gennadi sent from the hotels -- many in just swimsuits having been told to leave everything in the hotel," he told PA. "As night fell, we could see the fire on the top of the hills in Kiotari. They said all the hotels were on fire." Kotiadis said he and other travel agents sent buses to the island's southeast to pick up evacuated tourists. They had to go the long way around, since the road running down Rhodes' eastern side was blocked in places.
The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that personnel had set up a help desk at Rhodes International Airport for visitors who have lost their travel documents."Over 450 firefighters and seven airplanes from the EU have been operating in Greece as fires sprout across the country," EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic tweeted early Sunday afternoon.
Of the 64 wildfires that broke out elsewhere in the country Sunday, the most serious was on Evia, Greece's second- largest island, where authorities told residents of four southern villages to evacuate to the town of Karystos, west of where the fire was advancing.
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