Greece fires - live: ‘Biggest evacuation in history’ as Jet2 and Tui scrap Rhodes flights

Greek authorities have issued fresh evacuation orders for parts of Corfu as dozens of wildfires erupted on the island after blaze in Rhodes prompted “the biggest evacuation in Greek history”. Videos on social media show flames engulfing Corfu as smoke and orange haze covered the night skies. The fire broke out on the northern part of the island which is popular with British tourists. Those in Santa, Megoula, Porta, Palia Perithia and Sinies were told to evacuate to Kasiopi due to fires on Corfu. The order came after Jet2 and Tui cancelled all flights to Rhodes. The Jet2 planes were scheduled to depart full of tourists bound for the Greek island. But the planes left empty and will instead be used to evacuate holidaymakers fleeing the blaze. Thousands of tourists were forced to flee their hotels and images captured their dramatic evacuation off of beaches by a fleet of private boats while the fires raged in the background. Overnight, firefighters were struggling to contain 82 wildfires burning across the country, 64 of which started on Sunday, the hottest day of the summer so far. Read More Wildfires on Greek island of Rhodes force thousands of holidaymakers to evacuate From body bags of ice to pavement burn: US grapples with new extreme heat reality Hiker, 71, dies in Death Valley shortly after being asked by reporter why he was braving heat: ‘Why not?’ July 2023 is set to be world’s hottest month in ‘hundreds, if not thousands, of years’