Scared at thought of Greece wild fires 2024??

[Gameofmoans81]

I was literally about to press book on a holiday to Corfu for July and had a sudden wobble at the thought of the wildfires happening again. Is it putting you off going there this year?
How likely is it that they happen again?
As a teacher I’m forced into going on holiday at the hottest time of year unfortunately and half terms are too busy with marking and whatever else!

It's definitely a consideration op. I know people are going to scoff about it, but if it's something that worries you, you're not going to relax properly on your well deserved break.

I was staying in a resort just up from Athens (Mati) in 2021 and we decided to walk to the next beach resort through the forest. We were walking back home when a forest fire spread rapidly on the hill behind us. I tried to keep calm not to panic my son (we were alone), but my instinct really was to run. Although the hotel reassured me everything was fine, I spent the evening soaking towels in the bath and stopping up the door with damp bathmats just in case. There were helicopters over the hotel and seaplanes filling up with water outside our balcony all evening. The mobile high alert was going off every hour through the night evacuating villages all around the mountains behind us.

The next morning we had to take a taxi to Athens harbour, and it was terrifying, police diverting us, driving on roads with zero visibility and plumes of black smoke.

Unfortunately there was a huge fire a few years previously in Mati, when the residents had to run into the sea to save themselves and there were lives lost. But years later we still saw huge piles of dried out wood and grass lying in the street like kindling.

would you be worried about coming to the south coast of england? Most summers we get at least a couple of heath fires adjacent to our town. there are
fires in other heathy/woody areas in the south.

there are great areas of rhodes that were nowhere near the fires. I imagine they will be extra vigilant this year

but if you are going to stress about the holiday, what is the point?

the only thing i wouldnt do is get an isolated villa in an area that could burn - either heathland or forest. that way if the worst did happen i would be with other people so would hopefully be more aware about whats happening.

there were massive forest fires when we went to the algarve.

if you are cancelling out any places that have fires you are going to have to go somewhere wet or a city break.

Yes, I'm worried about it. I was looking at hotels on Rhodes and then noticed that some of the ones with free child places seemed to be some of the ones that had fire damage last year.

It just seems like it's way too hot everywhere in the Med in August but I can't figure out another way to get a fly-and-flop holiday.

you could go somewhere that doesnt have vegetation? eg canaries. Or a hotel in the middle of a big resort. its unlikely they are going to evacuate all of benidorm for example. even scotland and the peak district had massive fires a few years ago, so i dont think anywhere is guaranteed nowadays.

sorry to keep adding.....the ones that had fire damage in rhodes last year are least likely to have it this year as all the old scrub (which is most likely to go up in flames) will have been burnt already. i'm no fire guru though.....

Yeah, that did cross my mind.

*@dreamingofsun ·

would you be worried about coming to the south coast of england? Most summers we get at least a couple of heath fires adjacent to our town. there are
fires in other heathy/woody areas in the south.*

Recent fires in Greece burned an area the size of New York City. Has that happened on the South Coast of England??

Why are so many people on MN suddenly terrified of everything? What a way to live your life.

The Cyclades don’t have much vegetation and don’t tend to get fires and are also sone of my favourite Greek islands generally. Winds can be hit and miss through in summer.

I wouldn’t go to Greece in July simply because I would find it too hot. I prefer the Algarve where there is more of a breeze but the sea can be quite cold in Portugal.

We have booked corfu for this year. Last week we were in skiathos just before they had a storm that pretty much flooded the whole island. Life is too short to worry about what might or might not happen x

Last year we were in skiathos