The fires in Rhodes are a major topic in the German media, as the popular tourist destination hosts thousands of German tourists.

Most media emphasize that thousands of people were moved to safe places in time, while also pointing out the extent of the disaster. There are also references to the high temperatures and lack of rain that are affecting Europe in general.

“Approximately 30,000 people were evacuated to Rhodes,” writes Der Spiegel magazine. “Forest fires are raging in Rhodes. Tens of thousands of people have already been evacuated to safety on the Greek island. The end of the alarm, however, according to the Fire Service, is still a long way off”, writes the magazine and mentions that Greece is affected by extreme heat, with a temperature of over 44 degrees. “Greece is just one of the many countries worldwide that face periods of extreme heat,” notes the editor.

“Thousands of people on the run – The forest fires in Rhodes cause the largest evacuation operation in Greek history,” writes the RND Network on its website. as does WELT, which reports that “Thousands of people are moving away from the flames of Rhodes in the largest evacuation in Greek history.”

The report of the first channel of German public television ARD has a title “Temperatures over 40 degrees – Forest fires still out of control in Rhodes” and subheading “The situation is not yet clear on the Greek holiday island of Rhodes: heat and wind make firefighting work difficult. According to the government, 19,000 people were evacuated. International aid is on the ground.”

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung talks about ‘beach holiday turned into nightmare’ and describes the operation of removing tourists from their hotels in order to take them to places of safety.

According to Zeit, the Association of German Travel Agents estimates that there are currently around 20,000 German tourists in Rhodes – “however, only a small part of them are affected by the situation”, it clarifies.

BILD newspaper and Focus magazine have for some time now a continuous flow of news about the situation in Rhodes. The newspaper conveys testimonies of tourists who had to leave their hotels, in some cases even without their luggage, while the magazine refers extensively to the legal rights of German tourists who are either in Rhodes or already have reservations for vacations on the island in the near future.