A Scottish family that was rescued from the Rhodes wildfires by being taken to safety in a dinghy has spoken of their relief.
At the resort of Lardos, Inverurie residents Emma and Bruce Farquhar were vacationing with their teenage daughters.
As a result of the intense heat, wildfires have started to spread across Rhodes and other Greek islands, prompting evacuations.
According to the deputy mayor of the island, the fires are still "out of control," and they have compelled 19,000 people to leave their homes.
Emma, Bruce, Brodie, 17, and Eilidh, 15, were eventually transported to Pefkos along the coast for safety after forcing their hotel to take action.
It was rapidly spreading across the top of the hill next to our hotel, Emma remarked.
"At that point, I thought, "Wow, this is quite frightening; we need to leave right away. " .
Only six people could fit in the dinghies at once. The family watched as their luggage was taken first while waiting on the sand.
Locals in Pefkos assisted the family in boarding their taxi and navigating the traffic and roadblocks to get to the airport.
"It was chaos, buses were everywhere, and people with cases and bags were clearly in a rush to get to the airport," Emma said. ".
The family has returned safely to their Aberdeenshire home.
In particular for their own staff, Emma felt that the hotel and vacation providers should have done more quickly.
"Many are locals, and they served there when they should have been at home with their families," she continued.
The waitress's mention of her father, mother, daughter, and husband—who she hoped were safe but had no way of knowing—made me feel pretty awful.
"You feel self-centered because they were assisting us in getting to the airport when really we should be helping them since they are losing their homes and means of support. ".
The Greek government announced it had launched the largest rescue operation of its kind in response to the emergency, and Corfu and Evia have now become the newest islands to receive evacuation orders.
Rescue flights are starting to return tourists home, but no injuries have yet been reported.
After leaving their hotels, some Scottish visitors told BBC Scotland that they were forced to sleep on the streets.
The experience of being stranded on the island, according to a couple from Glasgow who were there for their honeymoon, was like "being thrown into a disaster film.".
One estimate places the number of British citizens on Rhodes at 10,000. Daniel and Luna Rolfe are from Glasgow.
Their flight's organizer, TUI, had assured them that it was safe to fly, but when they arrived, they were taken to an evacuation center inside a school and given mattresses to sleep on the floor.
The situation has been rather depressing, and watching my wife upset has been extremely difficult, but we are managing. " .
Some airlines have set up rescue flights to bring stranded tourists home, but TUI announced that its customers would have to wait until their original flights home were scheduled to depart.
We're now working hard to get everyone home safely, with our first passengers returning to the UK on three dedicated flights overnight and plans in place to get everyone affected back as soon as possible, according to a TUI spokesperson. ".
Greece's fires were able to spread thanks in part to a European heatwave, which is becoming hotter, longer, and more common as a result of climate change.
