On the Greek island of Rhodes, plagued by impressive fires for a week, “there is no longer a shade of green, nowhere, no longer a tree, no longer a shrub”, says a Frenchman who has lived there for 25 years. This volunteer firefighter recognizes that “it’s very impressive”.
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After a week of battling blazes southeast of the Greek island of Rhodes, “it doesn’t look like anything anymore, it’s gray and black everywhere“, testifies for franceinfo Alain Grandjean, resident of Rhodes for 25 years and volunteer firefighter. 30,000 people have been evacuated since the start of the fire.
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Called in as reinforcements by professional firefighters, Alain Grandjean and other volunteer firefighters are trying to contain the flames, armed with a few lances and water tanks in the back of a 4×4. “These are huge flames“, explains the Frenchman.
“As soon as there is a return of wind, we have to go back, back up. We have had to evacuate in barely 30 seconds to avoid being surrounded. It’s very impressive!”
Alain Grandjean, resident of Rhodes and volunteer firefighterat franceinfo
The relief of the island complicates the task of rescue, the center being mountainous. Steep areas where vehicles have difficulty getting as close as possible to the flames. Canadairs and helicopters arrived as reinforcements, but too late according to Alain Grandjean: “There is no longer a shade of green anywhere, we see charred trunks, embers everywhere, not a tree, not a shrub, describes the volunteer firefighter. It’s really sad, we see the corpses of deer, the typical animal of Rhodes. It’s a disaster. It will be destroyed for several decades“, blows the Frenchman.