A newlywed couple have told of their “pain” after fleeing on holiday in Rhodes when wildfires broke out.
Claire and Paul Jones were forced to do so moving to their hotel less than ten minutes later the fire engulfed the residence in Lindos.
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These two, all 36 from Leicestershirethey arrived in Rhodes on July 18, having married two days earlier.
Claire recalled sitting outside having a drink with her husband when it “started to smoke” and “ash was coming up”.
He said the next day, a the two were transferred by the teacher from Village Rhodes Beach Resort near Lardos after things went from “zero to 100”.
He said: “That’s how quickly it escalated, it was zero to 100.
“By the time we got our luggage and got to the lobby, which was maybe ten minutes, everyone was in the lobby and you could see the fire.
“They had come to the top of the mountain, they were in the middle of the mountain, and everybody was afraid.”
She said she and her husband were very lucky because now they were able to escape by taxi to Faliraki in the north of the island, where they planned to spend their trip.
“It’s hard for me to turn it off, I can’t think about it,” he added.
“I only think about small things, like the little girl on the bus shouting to her mother, ‘I don’t want to die’.
“The kids were scared because they could see the fire, it wasn’t good.”
Ms. Jones said she was given wet towels by the hotel staff as she was fleeing because “the smoke was so thick you couldn’t breathe”.
As we waited for the coaches to arrive, Mrs Jones recalled: “When we got to the car park and you could see the fire was getting closer, and the coaches weren’t coming… it was very worrying.”
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He added: “As soon as we boarded the coach, it was very scary because I thought that if the wind blew us, the coach would catch fire.”
“We had to drive two or three fires on either side of the road, there was no way out, we had to go through it.
“It was very scary to drive where we went because you could see everyone running out of their hotels, and people walking on the beach, walking in the streets, and they had babies and small children.”
Mrs Jones said she was driven to the beach where she waited for about two hours watching the fire get “closer” before several boats began to go ashore.
“There were a lot of people who were let down,” he said.
“There was nobody from the hotel, there were no holiday representatives we knew, nobody knew what was going on.
“You see the fire coming closer and closer, then them [the boats] they started to pull to the sea, apparently people were only helping.
“People were very cautious because there was no one leading them, but we just made a decision to cooperate.”
After arriving at Lindos Bay, Ms Jones said she and her husband fled in a taxi to Faliraki.
Thousands of Brit holidaymakers have been forced to evacuate as the fire continues in Rhodes.
The island that has been affected by the fire has been destroyed by flames that have destroyed land, property and wildlife.
The wildfire sent thousands of locals and tourists fleeing – to Greece great displacement effort.
Holidaymakers panic forced to evacuate burning hotels rushing to get home on the outgoing flight.
More than 16,000 people were evacuated by land and 3,000 by sea from 12 villages and more. hotels.
Many have criticized the tour operator for the lack of information he should not have been allowed to fly to Rhodes at first.
All of them EasyJet and Jet2 are planning flights back to Rhodes today to bring the Britons home.
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