A family from Northern Ireland evacuated due to the wildfires in Rhodes have said it was “hell” trying to get home from the Greek island.
Conor and Danielle Cullen took a holiday to Rhodes in Greece with their two daughters, Chloe (13) and Molly (11).
The family experienced a “brutal” several days trying to return to their home in Co Tyrone after being evacuated from their hotel with only one small backpack of their belongings.
They had to face a boat journey in the dark, emergency accommodation and trying to arrange travel back to Belfast with little information.
Temperatures of over 40 degrees have led to an outbreak of fires across islands in Greece, with the blaze in Rhodes causing more than 20,000 people to be evacuated.
Orders to evacuate have also been issued on the islands of Corfu and Evia.
After being evacuated from their hotel to a beach 4-5 miles away, Mr and Mrs Cullen were told that buses would be returning to take them back to the hotel, but as it grew dark Mrs Cullen said the danger of the nearby fire became more apparent.
“All you kept hearing was ‘A bus is coming, a bus is coming’ and then it starts to get dark and there’s no electric, so no streetlights, no nothing,” she said.
“And the darker it was getting the more you could see the flames, because during the day you couldn’t see flames, it was all smoke, but then when it was getting darker, the sky, it was just red and orange with flames.
“And you’re sitting and still nothing’s coming.”
Mr Cullen said: “You could feel the tension in the air. People were starting to get more panicked about what was happening.
“Because where the fire was didn’t look as severe as it got later in the night, and then you could see that the fire actually spread right across the horizon, almost like an arc as if it was coming towards you.”
Having received no guidance from easyJet, the airline the couple had booked through, or from anyone from their hotel, Mr and Mrs Cullen were told by a Red Cross representative that they had to evacuate their area by boat or by bus.
They said thousands of people gathered on the beach to await boats for evacuation in the dark.
Mr Cullen said once the boat started to allow people on it was a “free-for-all”.
Mrs Cullen added: “We’re pulling the kids, the kids are pulling us, everybody’s just pulling on each other. And it was just panic.
“They (others attempting to board) did not care about young children in front of them, and they got on before the children, they had pushed their way right through before we could even get the kids up.
“So we reckon there was about 50 of us on a boat, and nobody spoke and no life jackets.”
Mrs Cullen said the family’s experience on the boat was “hell”.
“We were on the boat for nearly three hours. Three hours on the boat,” she said.
“We did not know where we were at when we were getting off. I actually asked the man were we still in Rhodes. Because everything was black, you did not know.”
She added: “We’re on the water, we can’t see nothing, it was just hell.”
Mr and Mrs Cullen said the boat evacuation was extremely stressful for the family.
“I know the way I’m feeling, I’m sitting here at times going – this just seems like a dream, like the holiday hasn’t happened yet,” Mrs Cullen said.
“It’s just a nightmare, and that boat. We cannot, I cannot get that boat situation out of my head.”
Mr Cullen said he felt the boats looked unsafe.
“That was the big moment for us, was you’re risking getting on the boat in the middle of the night with young children,” he said.
“Because we’d seen lots of these sorts of tender boats running back and forth, getting people and taking them out to bigger ships and just the amount of people on them just didn’t look safe.”
Following the boat journey, the Cullens were taken to emergency accommodation in Afantou, Rhodes.
The couple said the family’s situation was not helped by a lack of communication from easyJet.
“There was other representatives of other airline companies coming to people and saying they’re looking into it and all the rest,” Mrs Cullen said.
“EasyJet – nothing. Not one person. Not one phone call. Not one text. Nothing.”
Mr Cullen said the first contact they received from the airline was 13 hours after the evacuation from their hotel.
“There’s no information being put out but to the media or whatever, and when we called them we were phoning flat out to try and get some information so you can make decisions,” he said.
“But then, I think the first correspondence we got was 13 hours later from (when) we were evacuated, and at that point we were on the boat.”
The Cullens heard of a repatriation flight to Gatwick, which they took, and then flew from Gatwick to Belfast City Airport, arriving home on Monday evening.
Due to their house and car keys being in the hotel along with their belongings and some sentimental items, the Cullens had to get a locksmith to open the door of their house.
They said booking new flights and accommodation had cost around £1,000, but Mrs Cullen said their focus was on the safety of the people of Rhodes, and the other tourists making the journey back.
“We hope that the island does build itself back up again because it was beautiful, and the families that we did meet along the way I really hope that they all got home as well,” she said.
Two flights from Rhodes were due to land at Belfast International Airport in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
An easyJet holidays spokesperson said they were in touch with Mr and Mrs Cullen and that the couple would receive a “partial refund”.
“There is nothing more important to us than the safety and wellbeing of our customers. As the situation in Rhodes has evolved, we’ve prioritised keeping our impacted customers updated, sourcing them alternative accommodation, and organising a return to the UK at the earliest opportunity,” they said.
“We’re really sorry to hear that Mr and Mrs Cullen’s holiday was impacted by the wildfires. As soon as we were aware of the situation and as it unfolded, we got in touch with Mr and Mrs Cullen several times to share updates and next steps, including confirming the alternative hotel we had sourced.
“While the concerning wildfire situation is out of our control, we apologise for any disappointment caused and we’ll be in touch with Mr and Mrs Cullen to discuss a partial refund for the disrupted element of their holiday.”
