Exclusive:
One woman, who waited 33 years for her wedding day, had to halt celebrations after what they thought was a ‘rain cloud’ turned out to be smoke from wildfires spreading in Greece
A family were forced to abandon their dream destination wedding after a huge cloud of smoke from raging Greek wildfires blacked out the sky.
Emily Wilde, 26, and her family had to halt her mother’s wedding on the island of Kos after what they thought was a “rain cloud” – but was in fact smoke from wildfires that have been raging in Greece – filled the sky.
Hundreds of tourists and residents were forced to flee on Monday as the flames spread amid “apocalyptic” scenes on the island, which has been roasting in summer heats.
After taking sunset pictures on the beach where staff told them not to panic about the growing smoke clouds, the wedding group was told to immediately get changed, grab their belongings and abandon the ceremony.
“We were put on a bus and the bus driver just dropped us off in the middle of this town,” Emily explained. Despite attempting to ask the driver if they were in the right location and for directions to the football pitch, the family was left abandoned in a town they did not know.
Has your holiday been impacted by the wildfires in Greece? Email us at webtravel@reachplc.com
“It was [the football pitch] an hour walk from where they dropped us off. We had the babies with us and had been drinking, but we had no choice but to start walking,” Emily shared.
Luckily, Emily spotted a preschool that appeared to be taking people in and asked if her and her family could also take refuge in the school. “At this point it was quarter to 10,” said Emily.
The family had booked their holiday through TUI and had hoped they would get help a rep working for the company, but they could not find anyone.
Having collectively spent £25,000 on the trip, Emily’s group felt they had no choice bit to wait for a TUI rep. A representative from the firm eventually appeared at 3:30am, but still didn’t inform the family of what was going on.
It wasn’t until 7am, that part of the group was able to return to the hotel via coach, with the rest joining them just after 9am. The family was so exhausted that they cancelled their plans and also tried to contact TUI after being left in the dark about how the rest of their holiday could be affected.
In an automated text, Emily’s mum was told that TUI would refund one nights stay. However, Emily received no text despite also booking through TUI. “My mum waited 33 years to do this, and TUI have not be helpful at all,” she said. “If I were to book another holiday, I would book with Jet2.”
“People weren’t telling us anything… One TUI rep was really rude saying ‘I can’t stand and talk to you’,” Emily continued. “People were panicked.”
Although Emily and her family didn’t make it to the football pitch where around 4,000 were gathered, she did note how the local reaction was heart-warming. Pubs and restaurants stayed open to allow people to have somewhere safe to sleep and a nearby pizzeria was even making and distributing pizza to people.
As many as 19,000 people were evacuated by land and sea from the island of Rhodes, Greece, in 2023 after the island suffered multiple wildfires. At least 28 people died in over 80 wildfires that were recorded.
A TUI UK&I spokesperson told the Mirror: “We are really sorry for all the guests that were impacted by the Kos wildfire, and the evacuation order which was put in place by the Greek Civil Guard earlier this week.
“The safety of our customers and colleagues is our number one priority and our teams worked to support customers impacted as best they could under difficult circumstances.
“We would like to again apologies to all those customers who were impacted and thank them for their understanding.”
For some members of the wedding party, it was even their first time abroad but despite the chaos “it was a beautiful ceremony,” said Emily.
Check out more of Daily Mirror’s latest travel stories by signing up to our free weekly newsletter.
