Wildfire on the Greek island of Crete causes evacuations of hotels and homes

A wildfire on the Greek island of Crete has caused the evacuation of hotels and homes early on Thursday outside the port of Ierapetra.

Firefighters are battling a wildfire which started early on Thursday on the south coast of Crete and prompted the evacuation of hotels and homes.Residents have called the fire, which caused three evacuation orders outside the port of Ierapetra, a "complete disaster".Strong winds have made the firefighters' task especially difficult, causing the flames to sweep through hillside forests.The areas of Ferma, Agia Fotia and Koutsounari have been badly affected, according to local media. In Agia Fotia, residents described the destruction as “biblical”, saying the fire destroyed everything in its path.An emergency alert had been sent on Wednesday evening, leading to the evacuation of the aforementioned areas. Evacuation orders were also issued for the villages of Achlia and Galini.Evacuations of houses and hotels continued throughout the night, while people who had taken refuge on the beach were evacuated by boat. There have been no casualties at the time of writing, though some people were reportedly taken to hospital with respiratory problems.Yiannis Androulakis, Lassithi region's deputy governor said that "due to the absence of air assets we concentrated on rescuing what we could from the houses. Hotels were evacuated and their occupants were taken to the indoor gym in Ierapetra. With gusts reaching 11 Beaufort, the fire has broken into three fronts."More than 150 firefighters were operating in the area, as winds were up to 9 on the Beaufort scale.Crete is one of Greece's most popular tourist destinations, and the risk of wildfires remains high on the island as well as in other parts of southern Greece.