Gennadi

Standing outside the blackened shell of what used to be his restaurant, Dimitris Hajifotis laments a livelihood lost to wildfires raging on the Greek island of Rhodes this week.

"My life now stopped," he said. "Everything is taken by the fire."

Firefighters battled all night to control persistent wildfires on the islands of Rhodes, Evia and Corfu, as well as in Achaia in the Peloponnese, as strong winds, soaring temperatures and tinder-dry conditions continued to stoke the flames into Tuesday morning, when water-dumping aircraft joined efforts on the ground.

Thousands of tourists had to be evacuated from three hotels that were later damaged by the flames on the southeastern coast of the island of Rhodes on Saturday as a huge wildfire that has been burning on the island since Tuesday morning continued to spread swiftly.