A British couple stranded by wildfires on Rhodes described their “nightmare” ordeal and claimed tour operator TUI sent them an email asking if they were “enjoying” their trip.
Marc and Laura Hall, celebrating their second wedding anniversary on Monday, aren’t due to fly back to the UK until Friday, with parents Alison and Wilf and brother Nick.
Music teacher Mr Hall, 37, told the Standard: “We feel abandoned and there’s no support.
“The only information we’ve had from TUI is an auto-generated email to say ‘hope you’re enjoying your holiday’.
“It’s quite weird in a way that there’s been nothing, no direct communication at all. It’s chaos and up to us to get a flight home.”
Mrs Hall, 30, who runs a natural dog food company in Stockport, Greater Manchester, told BBC Breakfast: “It’s been a nightmare. On Saturday night we were just having a drink and we knew that other places had been evacuated but we were just told to stand by.
“There was ash falling in our drinks and we could just see a blaze in the distance and a load of smoke. We were told not to do anything and then all of a sudden we had alarms going off on our phone and the waiter was shouting ‘mayday, mayday’.
“So it was just a mad panic, we all started packing, we were just told to wait and we might have to evacuate, so we just stayed in our rooms and at 3am we get a call, we’ve got to go.”
They were taken on a minibus by staff to a basketball stadium and spent the night sleeping on the floor with 300 to 400 people.
She said: “We just wanted a bed to sleep in for the night. We’re so tired.”
Mr Hall added: “The basketball stadium was just so full with people. My dad he’s 66 and somehow managed to get in a sleeping bag and sleep on a car park floor. I didn’t think I’d ever see him do that but he did. We spent about seven hours there.”
Meanwhile, a Briton whose family was evicted from their hotel in Rhodes walked miles in search of refuge with his two young children aged seven and 11.
Nick Stafford, from Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire was holidaying at the Gennadi Grand resort where he saw flames on the hills in the distance from the poolside.
Mr Stafford told ITV News: “Our kids were starting to get really nervous because as it got darker, you could really see the bright glow of the fire.”
“We’re bearing up pretty well in the circumstances, I think the main issue we’ve got is frustration.
"There’s a lack of knowledge of what we should or shouldn’t be doing, everything feels very rushed or very last minute without any kind of planning and that’s the main worry because we’ve never been sure if we’re 100 per cent safe or not. Even now.”
Dan Jones, a sports teacher from Torquay, had to climb on to a fishing trawler with his sons on Saturday night, describing it as “the scariest moment” in his life and adding: “What brave boys.”
Ian Wakefield told Times Radio he spent the night on a school playground in Faliraki after being moved from his hotel in Pefki.
Nursery worker Vicky Morris, 34, from Cheltenham, told The Sun her four-year-old daughter Cassie Bell asked: “Are we going to die, Mummy?”
A TUI UK&I spokesman said: “Our teams in Rhodes have been working tirelessly to support customers impacted by the wildfires in south-eastern parts of the island, with over 300 reps, drivers and service colleagues doing their utmost to help where the can, alongside the amazing local community and emergency services.
“We appreciate how distressing and difficult it’s been for those who have been evacuated and ask that they continue to follow the advice of the local authorities and keep in touch with the TUI reps who are present in all evacuation centres.”
