Flying to Rhodes on Wednesday 19 July, you could see smoke out of the window, but we didn’t think anything of it to be honest. We knew that wildfires were quite a regular thing in Rhodes.
However, I want people to be aware of what it’s actually like being involved in a climate disaster event.
In those first few days it was just a normal holiday. My partner and I were staying at the Atlantica Dreams resort, in Gennadi, south-east Rhodes with our four- and six-year-old daughters. The trip, booked with Tui, was our third visit to the resort – it’s the perfect place to go on holiday.
But by Saturday, things were quickly changing.
Saturday afternoon: ‘It looked like a disaster film’
On Saturday there was a huge cloud of smoke in the sky and it had started blocking out the sun. Even then we were still relaxing, still thinking it would get sorted.
The turning point came around 3pm, when I went to the reception for towels and there were about a thousand people in the lobby. It was clear something was very wrong.
I started talking to people, who said they’d been evacuated from their resort farther north. They said they had seen flames chasing them down the hills and ran.
Everyone was in various states of trauma, wearing just swim shorts and bikinis. It looked like a disaster film.
The resort team really looked after people, opened the doors to the buffet restaurant and had an onsite medical team.
I flagged down the Tui rep, who was very good. She said as far as they were aware we were safe here and nothing was going to change. That was a reassuring thought.
Saturday night: ‘We saw massive flames. A local man led us to safety’
As the sun started setting, my partner said she could see fire on the hills. I thought it was the sunset but then we saw massive flames. I thought: this is getting scary now.
By 10pm, we’d settled our daughters into bed and were trying to relax. There was a frantic knock on the door and the porter said we needed to evacuate now. Luckily we had already got all our luggage together, with a separate bag with our passports and phones.
We got the kids up and walked to the fire assembly point. Then all the fire alarms started going off and it got pretty scary. There were thousands of people there. An official said we would have to dump our suitcases and take only our essentials.
Someone from the resort came out and told us to run. Everyone started panicking and running into the village. Outside the resort, there were army trucks, Red Cross and lots of locals picking people up.
We got into the back of a pickup truck with about 20 others. We just had our passports and phones.
The driver dropped us off in the middle of nowhere to wait for coaches. We were in the pitch black and no one knew where we were. It was terrifying. That was the point the kids started panicking. Our eldest child asked me if we were going to die. That broke me into pieces.
Someone said no more coaches were coming, and a local man led a couple of hundred people through fields and back-country roads to safety. That man was a hero. At first we were walking away from the fire but at some point we had to walk towards it because of the weaving route. It felt extremely close – we could see the flames the whole time and could smell the smoke. It was horrifying.
On the main road, there were lots of cars going by. It was just pure adrenaline – you just go into a sheep-like state, just following. We were walking for about an hour and 30 minutes – it seemed to go on for ever.
At some point we ended up getting picked up by a Jet2 coach. They dropped us off, after a short drive, at another resort farther south.
Sunday morning: ‘Everyone was sleeping on the floor’
There was an unbelievable number of people at the Atrium Prestige resort, sleeping around pools, on the pavement. Luckily the kids just fell asleep on the floor. A heroic porter was filling up people’s bottles with tap water all through the night.
Our main concern was where the fire was. I was desperately trying to find out information on Twitter, which is now useless – when searching, loads of climate denying stuff came up.
The network was so bad and we had no phone battery; people were doing 10-minute shifts on a shared charger. My best friend’s wife who is in the travel industry was trying to find us transport to the airport. Around midday, I got a message saying a transfer was there, and we bundled ourselves in with about 15 others and luckily managed to escape.
It was pure relief – I had really started to panic that we would have to evacuate the Atrium. Outside, you could see the fire on the hill and really smell the smoke. There was ash raining down.
Sunday afternoon: ‘We could take our intended flight only’
On the journey to the airport the scenes were just unbelievable – everything was burned and loads of roads were closed.
At the airport, Tui reps said evacuation flights were coming in today and we were going to get on one. We were waiting for five hours – the kids were totally traumatised.
Tui sent us to a nearby hotel to wait. Then we saw a tweet saying all Tui passengers would be getting their intended flights only. Our flight was on Wednesday.
We just crashed. We hadn’t slept since Saturday morning, we were dead on our feet. From then on it was a case of constantly trying to get out of Rhodes.
Monday and Tuesday: ‘Safety was our only concern’
It was really hard to find out what was going on with the fires – the wind direction was changing. It was really stressful, and having no information was the scariest part. Safety was our only concern.
The local reps were incredible – they were tirelessly working to get people to safety and did everything they possibly could, but I don’t think they had much information either.
We were desperately trying to get on to another flight – by the time you got on to websites, they were already sold out.
By Monday, we realised we would have to ride it out. We were hand-washing our clothes in the sink, and our youngest got food poisoning. The kids were having nightmares all night. It was really dire.
We were just trying to keep the kids entertained and frantically looking for ways to escape.
Late on the Tuesday night, Tui rang and offered us a repatriation flight to Birmingham – but it was an hour after our intended flight.
Wednesday: ‘The feeling of relief was unbelievable’
We managed to get on our intended flight back around 2pm; there were loads of empty seats. It was either the case that people had made it out early, or couldn’t make it to the flight.
Until the plane left the tarmac and you were in the air, you thought any moment something would go wrong and you’re not going to get out of here. There were lots of tears on the plane.
We landed in Bristol around 4.15pm. Huge relief.
Thursday: ‘This is going to happen more and more’
When you’re nowhere near a climate emergency, you’re disconnected. You do obviously empathise, but when you actually experience it, it’s just horrifying and that’s just going to increasingly be the future now.
To be fair to the Greek authorities, considering how scant their resources are, they were good – but there will be much worse situations. And it’s not just going to affect tourists, it’s going to put local people in real danger.
For local people, their whole lives have been turned upside down. The damage we saw just in 24 hours – when’s it going to end and what will be left when it’s finally under control?
Right now, I just don’t want to leave the UK. I’m meant to go abroad for work next month but will be pulling out. I don’t want to put my kids through the trauma of me going abroad.
I just feel empty – I’ve never been in a situation like this before. There were several times where I thought: this is definitely it, either because of the fire or because of severe dehydration. I’m relieved to be finally home and safe.
I’d like to say I’m pretty aware about the climate crisis, but it was a real eye-opener. I think a lot of people have got a reality kick.
