The wildfires which have ravaged many areas of Greece during the recent heatwaves burned an estimated 470,000 stremmata of forest in the month of July alone, out of a total of 550,000 stremmata since the beginning of the year, but have thankfully claimed only 5 human lives to date. The evacuation of 20,000 people from fire-threatened areas in south-east Rhodes was achieved without major incident – though some homecoming British tourists claimed that much of this was down to local residents, who provided free food and water and guided them to assembly points, rather than to the efforts of officialdom. There were further successful evacuations on the island of Corfu.