Northampton family evacuated from Kos hotel due to wildfire moments after wedding vow renewal on beach

Matthew Whitmore, spoke to Chronicle & Echo, after his party of 16, including small children, were evacuated from their hotel - Portobello Royal - in Kos on Monday night (July 1) following a wildfire.

The family, from Kingsthorpe, were staying on the Greek island for the vow renewal of Matthew’s parents – Judith and Andrew Whitmore - who have been married for 33 years.

The family ended up spending the night of the vow renewal on the floor of a pre-school.

22-year-old Matthew said: “We are all quite upset that our parents didn’t get to enjoy their ‘wedding night’.

“We had just finished our wedding reception at 9pm on the beach when we were told we needed to be evacuated and had to go and pack our things.

“The bus driver decided he would drop us in Antimachia where there were hundreds of people all in the same situation we were in with nowhere to go.

“We walked past a pre-school and the woman who ran the school had decided to come and open up to allow strangers to shelter through the night so we helped her empty a classroom and lay out cots for the children and elderly to use and stayed there all night on the hard floor.

“Eventually the army turned up and did what they could to help dropping off water and other items.”

The family were taken back to the hotel at around 7am the next morning (Tuesday July 2). However, the family felt like they missed out on the last day of their holiday as they had spent most of it catching up on sleep. And although the family understands that they needed to be evacuated for their safety, they have raised concerns with how their holiday provider - TUI - handled the situation.

Matthew added: “The Greek authorities were helpful and accommodating as much as they could be and the pre-school staff we stayed with were amazing and so helpful.

“However we are upset with how TUI handled the situation.

“They were totally unhelpful even with small children in our party and they refused to tell us anything about where we were going and what to do.

“I even asked a TUI rep to show me where they were taking us on a map and they completely refused to show me, which I thought was very unprofessional and not how that should be handled.”

This newspaper contacted TUI for comment about how the Whitmore’s say they were treated by TUI staff. We were, however, issued with the below, generic comment about the wider situation in Kos.

A TUI UK&I spokeswoman said: “The safety of our customers and colleagues is our number one priority and our teams have been working to support customers impacted by a wildfire in the Kardamena area of Kos.

“We have our TUI reps on the ground supporting customers as they return to hotels. Customers in Kos are advised to continue to follow the advice of local authorities.”

The holiday firm also said customers impacted have been contacted and have been asked to speak to TUI to “discuss their options”.