We ran for our lives as Rhodes fire almost burned down our hotel, it’s chaos

A Scottish couple told how they had to run for their lives as the Rhodes wildfire threatened to burn down their five-star hotel.

Hayley Marshall, 26 and Josh Renwick 32, said they had to make a desperate four-mile mercy dash with their luggage from their resort in Kiotari.

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Up to 19,000 locals and tourists are on the move in the biggest evacuation effort Greece has ever seen due to the wildfires spinning out of control on the popular island.

Over 16,000 people were evacuated by land and 3,000 by sea from 12 villages and several hotels – many of which were Brits.

Extraordinary scenes show columns of people carrying their luggage and children on dirt roads as they try to find safety.

Hayley and her partner, from Livingston, were staying at a five-star hotel when they were forced to flee last night.

She said: “We got to an evacuation centre, It’s not great it’s like a dungeon but it’s safe.

“We were evacuated yesterday at about one o’clock but the whole morning the sky was completely black and when we entered our bedroom it looked out onto where the fire was so we could see clearly how close it was.

“It was just getting closer and closer so the flames we right in front of us by the time we got the government alert on our phones saying we had to evacuate.

“It was so close that we knew we had to evacuate. It was only a matter of time.”

The couple claim the hotel staff continued to assure them it was safe – before panic ensued moments later with staff shouting “get to the beach!”

She added: “It went from everything was safe to total panic – get out now.

“When we got out the gates of the hotel all the staff of the hotel took their name badges off and started running.

“It was basically every man for themselves.”

British Embassy officials in Athens urged Brits to leave the area on Saturday evening – as holidays and flights to Rhodes continue to be cancelled.

The Foreign Office has also scrambled an evacuation team in.

Tui – who have 40,000 tourists in Rhodes, 7,800 of which are impacted by the fires – have cancelled all their flights and holidays to the island up to and including Tuesday July 25.

Jet2 has now cancelled all flights and holidays that were due to depart to Rhodes today.

The statement added: “We will fly those five empty aircraft to Rhodes with no customers onboard, so that we can bring customers back to the UK on their scheduled flight.”

EasyJet has now announced it will make another two rescue flights tomorrow and a third on Tuesday.

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