Negligence. Pure negligence. @TUIUK @GavaMilnaResort At 21:35 the power went out at Gava Waterman Milna. Shortly afterwards ash was literally falling from the sky. At 22:05, despite that, staff told us to GO BACK TO OUR ROOMS. We were told we were safe. We went back only to throw our passports and essentials into a rucksack. I looked out from the terrace and the whole sky was orange. 22:10. FIVE MINUTES after being told we were safe, we walked outside and the fire was in the trees and around the buildings about 20 feet behind us. We got to reception and it was pitch black. No generator had kicked in. No emergency lighting. No clear evacuation route. Reception had been abandoned. The automatic glass doors that had previously been open were now jammed shut with an elderly couple trapped inside. Me and one member of the entertainment team who had stayed behind had to force the doors open ourselves to get them out. The rest of your staff had left. We then headed towards the beach because there was nowhere else to go. No illuminated evacuation route. No plan being communicated. Just families, elderly people and disabled guests trying to get down a steep, dark resort towards a rocky beach while the fire closed in behind us. 22:47. We were on the rocks waiting for help. Within minutes the trees around the beach were burning. The flames were above us. It was getting really hot and burning embers were raining down from the sky. At this point people were jumping into the sea and trying to get away from the smoke. We were incredibly lucky that a local man came out in his boat and picked us up. At around 22:57 we were finally away from the hotel and safe. And then, unbelievably, the TUI evacuation message finally arrived at approximately 23:36. We had escaped into the sea around 40 MINUTES EARLIER. And this wasn’t a fire that appeared from nowhere. Firefighting planes had been fighting it throughout the day. Everyone knew there was a wildfire nearby. There was always the possibility of the winds changing. Yet guests were still being accepted into the resort. We weren’t evacuated. We weren’t even prepared. Nobody said: “The fire is nearby. Pack your passports. Have a bag ready. If the situation changes, this is where you evacuate to.” Instead, with the power already gone and ash falling from the sky, we were told to go back to our rooms and that we were safe. The hotel is on a steep hill with tight, sharp roads. Some staff fled in their cars, contributing to congestion while fire engines were trying to get up to the resort. There were disabled guests trying to get down towards a rocky beach in complete darkness. No ramps. No lights. No clearly communicated emergency plan. I’m sure somewhere along the line this will be put down to an “act of God”. The wildfire itself might have been outside of your control, but having no proper warning, no clear evacuation procedure, no emergency lighting, no preparation and telling guests to go back to their rooms minutes before the fire reached us is not an act of God. No fire extinguishers, no emergency hammers for breaking glass. The emergency siren on site was not loud enough and couldn’t be heard in the room and only went off after the resort was on fire. Not fire alarms, this is the evacuation alarm, only sounding after rooms were burning. For a wildfire that has been going all day. You had warning. You had time to prepare people. You had time to tell us what to do if the fire changed direction. You didn’t. Thank you to the fire fighters who risked their lives, they were incredible. We are now still waiting to find out where we will stay and how we get home, on the other side of the island. The hotel lobby u put us in don’t want us here and we just want to go home. Everyone lost their luggage. Getting told a different story every minute on ur phone lines. Negligence. This needs properly investigating because it should never have been allowed to get to that point.