Mitsotakis describes the fight against forest fires on Rhodes Island as a "war"
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, regarding the forest fires on Rhodes Island, said, "We are at war. We will rebuild what we have lost, we will compensate the damages. Our primary concern should be the protection of human life."
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in his speech at the Parliament, pointed out that fires broke out more easily due to the prolonged heat and strong winds, and said that no measures taken against the fire were sufficient.
Stating that Rhodes Island was largely damaged by the fires that started a week ago and still could not be extinguished, Mr Mitsotakis said that at least there were no "loss of life and serious injuries".
Mr Mitsotakis stated that thousands of people were transferred to safe places in Rhodes.
Thanking the teams and volunteers involved in the fire extinguishing works and evacuation operations, Mr Mitsotakis said, "We are at war. We will rebuild what we have lost and compensate for the damages. Our primary concern should be the protection of human life. No measure is sufficient against the fury of nature. We must all be constantly vigilant over the next few weeks."
While the forest fire, which started a week ago on Rhodes Island, continued to spread uncontrollably, it was reported that 19 thousand people were evacuated from the region on 22 July.
In a statement made by the Greek Climate Ministry, it was stated that "this evacuation operation is the largest evacuation operation ever carried out in the country".
The fires, which were initially limited to the mountainous interior of the island, spread to the coastal areas, including luxury hotels, with the effect of strong winds, high temperature and dry weather.
Since the telephone connection was cut in some parts of the island, evacuation works were carried out with difficulty.
In the Greek press, it was stated that the evacuees spent the night in gyms, schools and conference centres, and many panicked tourists tried to leave the island by going to Rhodes Airport.
Two amphibious fire extinguishing aircraft and a fire extinguishing helicopter of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry had arrived in Athens on 22 July with a flight crew of nine people on the instructions of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to fight the ongoing forest fires in Greece.
