It took 11 days for the bushfires in the Greek island of Rhodes to be officially declared under control.
Early estimates paint a bleak picture of over 200,000 acres burnt, amounting to 14 per cent of the whole island, including over 20,000 acres of environmentally protected land and wildlife shelters.
But the level of destruction and trauma suffered by locals remains undefined, with testimonies of locals and expats who rushed to the island to help, pointing to long-standing unresolved issues in the fire response orchestrated by the Greek government.
“The moment we knew that there was a fire, we went to check because we’re used to being independent and self-reliant. I went through the fires here again in 2008 so I knew that the local government is underfunded, they don’t have the infrastructure that should be in place,” Stephen Procopiadis, a Greek Australian who moved from Sydney to Rhodes in 2006 tells Neos Kosmos.
“I already had water tanks and hoses and pumps to protect my own property, learning from what happened in the last fires. And the word gets around here, through the local network, neighbourhoods, friends, shop owners, they’re all connected. So, when people asked for help, we went there to help.”
Locals carrying water to firefighters
Mr Procopiou, is a resident of Asklipio in the fire-affected southeast part of the island.
Recounting the days before the fire spread to his village, he says things were already tough due to cut-off connections to the main road and infrastructure network.
“Eventually our village had no water, then we had no electricity, no food and we were reliant on what the people were donating. For three days we went on energy drinks and fruit basically.”
At the time the fire reached Asklipio, he was at the outskirts trying with other locals to stop the spread.
“But then I got cut off and had to go through three other villages to reach Asklipio. By the time I got back the village was on fire and evacuated.”
He managed to reach his residence just on time.
“I was fortunate. My business caught on fire but I managed to put it out because I had my own firefighting unit on my truck. It had started going into the shed where I had all my tools and equipment. I put out the fire just in time because it was nearing the batteries of the solar system and they would have exploded.”
His case was not unusual, Mr Procopiadis says, with many locals having resorted to their own means to fight the fire, and even providing much-needed reinforcement in numbers and supplies to the firefighting units deployed.
“At one point we must have been all together 300 pick-up trucks of individuals who used their own cars, to carry water tanks and people, everyone with their own capacity. In many places we pretty much outnumbered the fire brigade. We were the ones carrying the water to the fire brigade,” he says.
Brisbane resident John Fronis, a friend of Mr Procopiadis, was holidaying Greece at the time with his family. Both him and his wife hail from Rhodes and had stopped by the island before the fires started.
But seeing the fire ravaging the island, he decided to go back and help.
“I was speaking to Stephen the night before when the fire had calmed down a little bit. By the morning when we spoke next it had started again. So, as soon as I got off the phone I booked a ticket, packed my bags, said goodbye to my kids and wife and caught a plane back,” Mr Fronis tells Neos Kosmos.
“So, we went to Asklipio and then Vati, Lachania… I think we ended up going to seven or eight villages to assist any way we could.”
“The way I see it, it was the whole island that needed help. They weren’t sending enough planes, they didn’t have enough firefighters. There were 300 to 400 locals with their own utes, their own equipment. So it came down to a huge combined effort putting out the fires every night and in the morning they would start up again.”
Claims of inadequate and disproportionate assistance deployed
Reflecting on the timeline of how quickly the fires spread, Mr Fronis believes that “it if weren’t for the locals, the whole island would have burnt.”
“There were 1,000 police sent from Athens. It’s a hell lot of police when you actually need firefighters. And the locals know the roads, anyone coming from Athens didn’t. There were times when they were going to the wrong direction and we had locals telling them how to go through.”
Fires had been raging for four days when flames started approaching tourist accommodation sites.
On 22 July, authorities transferred a total of 19,000 visitors to the island to safe locations.
Locals have reportedly denounced the contrast in media attention and support that followed compared to the days before, when the fire was threatening homes.
Mr Procopiadis echoes this sentiment.
“Most people are very disappointed that they went to the hotels, when we were prioritising where there was most urgent need. And I’m not talking just from my perspective, this is what a lot of people experienced.
“My friend’s place was burning at a time when there were at least 10 or 15 fire trucks waiting outside a hotel and he was trying to save his home when people at the hotel had no problem at that point.
“He was using a wheelbarrow filled with water and plastic bottles to put out his house. In the end, he was fortunate because the whole house didn’t burn down. But he physically went in and ripped the timbers that were on fire out of the wall and threw them out of the window to save his house.”
Mr Procopiadis says recovery efforts are also spearheaded by grassroot groups, including from foreigners with connections to the island.
“Some German tourists that were here that are connected to media and have villas here are already organizing a team to raise money for equipment […] so that we can better protect our properties.”
The crux of the problem, he says, was a lack of coordination between central government deployments and the local response.
“It was crazy, we were running around from one village to the next, putting out fires, reinforcing the fire brigade. But you know, we’re resourceful people here.”
The road to recovery will be long, says Mr Fronis. But he also believes local solidarity is key.
“A lot of people are waiting for assessments and things like that. I think personally that the biggest help is hope and positivity. Because, you know, it’s pretty traumatic for everybody. So, everybody kind of getting together again, trying to do normal things I think it goes a long way.”
