A dad has spoken of the moment he watched wildfires burn 175 miles away from Rhodes.

Duncan Raeside and his wife and two children have been on holiday at the resort of Sarande in Albania, and they could see the flames of the fires across the sea.

The family flew into Corfu at the weekend before taking a ferry to Albania for a planned stay.

They are set to return to Corfu on Thursday and spoke of the devastation they saw from their hotel balcony.

For the latest updates on the Greece wildfires in Rhodes, Corfu and elsewhere, follow Metro.uk’s live blog here

Duncan told Metro.co.uk:‘The kids thought it was a volcano. We couldn’t believe how fast it was spreading’

‘We sat there at dinner last night and saw some smoke, and my son said: ‘Look, there’s a volcano on Corfu.

‘We looked over and there was a tiny little spot of fire. We said, ‘no, look – it’s a fire.’

‘During dinner, over the course of 45 minutes, we saw it spread down the side of the whole mountain. We couldn’t believe how fast it was spreading.’

Footage shows the fires burning miles away in Corfu (Picture: Duncan Raeside)

Thousands of people have been evacuated from the small island (Picture: Carrie Pitt)

‘By the time we’d walked back to our apartment and we were sitting on the balcony after dinner, it looked like it had started working down the other side of the mountain.

‘This morning, we could only see smoke so either we can’t see the fire, or hopefully it’s got better.

‘We are scheduled to go back to Corfu on Thursday but we don’t know yet what will happen. Apparently they were evacuating people from the beach there last night.’

It comes as thousands of Brits were flown back to the UK on repatriation flights as the wildfires continued to burn for the sixth day in a row.

The first repatriation flights are set to land back in the UK this morning as some sea evacuations have begun from a beach in Corfu to transport individuals fleeing the flames.

One man who arrived at Gatwick Airport after being evacuated off the Greek island of Rhodes showed he could see the fires from Albania (Picture: REUTERS)

Smoke billows from a burnt hotel complex during a wildfire (Picture: AFP via Getty)

Sam Morgan and Ellie Greene from Winchester, who were in Albania and were able to see the fires on Corfu(Picture: REUTERS)

One brave Brit decided to try and take his own action and used a hire car to drive fleeing families to safety.

Some 77 firefighters and 25 water trucks are battling scattered outbreaks in Evia, east of Athens, said Greece’s state agency ANA-MPA, citing the fire department.

Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary James Cleverly tweeted to say his office is in ‘close contact with authorities in Greece’.

The blaze continued to rage after the fire service warned more fires could break out with temperatures set to reach 45C.

Greek authorities said 19,000 people have been evacuated so far, with the Ministry of Climate Change and Civil Protection adding it was ‘the largest evacuation from a wildfire in the country’. Police on Rhodes said 16,000 have been evacuated by land and 3,000 by sea from 12 villages and several hotels.

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The family could see the flames more than 150 miles away as the wildfires continued to blaze.