(Bloomberg) -- Greek firefighters are struggling to contain wildfires on some of the nation’s biggest islands, leading authorities to start evacuations just as the main tourist season starts. 

Both visitors and locals were asked to leave the village of Kardamena on the island of Kos on Monday night as fires got closer and threatened property. The UK embassy in Greece told visitors via X to abide by orders from authorities. 

Greece has seen hundreds of fires in the past two weeks as searing heat and strong winds have made the job to control them even harder. The start of evacuations is a reminder of last summer when some 19,000 people, including thousands of tourists, were rescued from parts of the island of Rhodes. 

This summer “is predicted to be particularly dangerous” for wildfires, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Monday during a meeting with his cabinet. “We are now entering the hard core of the fire fighting season.” 

The maximum temperatures on the mainland will be 38C (100F) on Tuesday, while the island of Crete will be as hot as 36C, according to the national weather service. 

New fires are also raging in the Heraklion area on Crete. A blaze on the island of Chios that erupted on Monday is still burning in various spots, although the local fire department reported some success in containing the flames. Five firefighters and one volunteer were injured. 

As of Tuesday noon local time, authorities said more of the fires were under control. 

Last weekend, three big fires started near Athens, but authorities managed to control them relatively quickly. Still, some homes were destroyed. Another fire on the island of Serifos burned down a large part on the south of the island. 

--With assistance from Paul Tugwell.

(Updates with prime minister comments in fourth paragraph.)

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