As the tragedy of wildfires in Rhodes hit the News we saw the post on Instagram from a client saying they thought they were about to die.

We immediately made contact. The family had literally been running from the flames throughout the night trying to stay in front of the raging fires. They were terrified, exhausted, shoe-less and had abandoned their luggage and belongings as they ran. They explained that their 7-year-old autistic daughter wasn’t coping with the situation and other holiday makers were fist fighting to get on coaches. We gave them professional advice about following local guidance as their region was now under army control and to conserve the battery on their phone while we would make enquiries our end to get them to safety.

At this point they were just relieved that somebody knew of their existence. Our first attempts were to try and get them into any hotel that hadn’t been affected, after constant rejection we knew this was a dead-end as the whole area was in complete disarray.  Our next attempt was to try and get someone to pick them up, calling all local taxi companies and hotels who we thought might send a car for them. It became clear as our investigations on the ground escalated, that the fire was across the centre of the island, and they were stranded on the southern side whilst safety was on the north, so land transportation was no longer an option.  That’s when our efforts redirected to finding someone that could help us with a sea rescue. We started ringing anyone that had a boat and finally found Mike, a beach ski operator from Rhodes Water Sports who said that if we were serious, he would contact the port authorities and see if he could get permission to go enter the disaster-zone and pick them up personally.

On securing Police and Port Authority permissions, Mike was allowed to enter the area and we told the clients to make their way to the beach and that we had Mike coming to get them. As you can imagine the family were overwhelmed that they had a route out and asked if they could also evacuate another family who they had teamed up with. 

Once Mike had made contact with them the wind had picked up and the port authorities wouldn’t allow them to bring the boat to shore. The ping pong between port authorities, Mike, us and the family continued throughout the day. The port authorities were not prepared to allow the departure but were only on duty until 5pm so Mike temporarily left the area without the family and returned half an hour later to scoop up both families from the burning beach.

Meanwhile we had contacted one of our UK hotel sales reps who helped us secure rooms at a hotel in the north of the island. We arranged for a hotel car to meet the boat upon arrival from a traumatic night-race across the water and away from the flames, and whisked them up to their new accommodation for both families and flights to come home safely 2 days later. No charge.

Subsequently with the families safe we have sent heartfelt thanks and gifts of appreciation (and new bookings) to our treasured on-island rescue team whose selfless disregard for their own safety in saving our clients (and their unknown companions) was the stuff of legend when all else failed. The boat drivers wife and 5yr old son waved to our clients as they (and their hero father) passed the threshold to safety,  even though they had themselves lost their own home to the fires whilst he was rescuing our clients. It hit the national press and took 72 hours of our team’s constant unrelenting attention, but a good night’s sleep was had by all after the job was done.