An Abergavenny woman recalled the day she and her family fled the wildfires on the Greek Island of Rhodes last month. 

Charlotte Harvey was on a 10-day holiday with her partner, three children, brother and mother when the wildfires broke out. 

The advice at the hotel the family were staying was to remain where they were, despite reports of more than 40 people having already been killed. 

There was thick smoke affecting their breathing, but it wasn’t until Charlotte and her 62-year-old mother, Andrea, came out of a spa treatment, that they were told they had to leave immediately because the fire was approaching. 

Charlotte described thousands of people on the roads fleeing the hotel, which was now completely engulfed in smoke. 

Andrea has emphysema and COPD of the lungs and was unable to get her mobility scooter onto the beach and therefore had to abandon it. The mother and daughter were separated from Charlotte’s partner, brother, and three children, aged 15, 12 and 8. 

Charlotte described the scene as “chaos and carnage,” without any transport forcing them to walk for miles to find safety.

She said: “Obviously, it was very hot, you couldn’t breathe, and our eyes were bright red and burning. Our feet were black, we had ash in our hair and clothes.”

A Greek woman flagged down a police car who drove the pair to a nearby hotel. This is where Charlotte spotted the rest of her family. 

The pair took Charlotte’s youngest daughter, Marni-Mai, with them to a local school where they spent a short amount of time before being told everyone had to evacuate immediately. 

Charlotte described the following few hours as “horrendous” as they walked for miles in the dark.

A German couple helped carry Andrea.

Charlotte said: “If it wasn’t for the German couple, I don’t want to think where we would be. My mum had blisters all over her feet, I had to wrap them in tissue.

“She couldn’t breathe, she went grey in her face.”

When finally finding a boat waiting to evacuate women and children Charlotte dragged her mother down the beach before pushing her way onto the boat through swarms of people, screaming, crying, pushing and shoving.

She said: “It had been so long, and we hadn’t slept, and I thought my mum was going to die. 

“It sounds terrible but I pushed my way on. I needed to get her on there.”

Eventually they arrived at the airport and travelled home to Abergavenny on the evening of  Monday, July 24. 

Despite illness from water Charlotte was drinking during this journey, a doctor has confirmed the family are okay, just suffering from exhaustion and dehydration. Andrea is due to have a scan on her knee.