Mr Bardakis, you have been fighting the forest fires in your home for a week. Are not you tired?
Working in such extreme heat is always crippling.
We have good equipment.
Nevertheless, it is incredibly physically demanding, but you usually only feel that after work.
In the meantime, you often don't even notice it, simply because there are more important things: saving people and their belongings.
We train every day to be as fit as possible in such disasters.
But injuries and breathing problems are part of the job.
What is your everyday life like right now?
We are available around the clock.
New fires are constantly breaking out, including in the vicinity of large cities like Athens.
I am part of a special unit with special military forces.
We are flown directly to the source of the fire by experienced pilots by helicopter.
So we can fight the fire there directly.
Do not be afraid?
I have awe and respect.
Fire is a beast.
And if you don't respect it, you have no chance.
But the population trusts in us.
They feel safe: they know that we will do everything in our power to protect them.
That is encouraging.
They had to evacuate many Greeks. How do people react when they are supposed to leave their home?
We want to save people, but it is sometimes difficult to convince them to leave.
There are old people, children, animals.
And they should leave everything behind.
An older man said to me, “My boy, I built this house with sweat and blood and I have no intention of leaving.” It is at such moments that you have to find the right words.
Is that stressful for you?
It's sad to see people lose their homes.
It's not just a roof over their heads, it's all they have.
The clothes, the pictures, the memories.
A whole life that the flames destroy within seconds and that no one can bring back.
They save even the smallest ones - like a turtle ...
When we had finally extinguished the fire at Drosia after hours, we checked the forest.
Then we discovered a turtle and were totally surprised that its shell was still intact.
So we picked her up and she moved her head.
We got a bowl of water to cool off.
She had a drink and then started walking.
We took her and took her to a piece of forest that had been spared from the flames.
Moments like these give me strength.
That is the reward for all efforts: To see that we were able to save something.
You posted a photo of it and commented with the words: "The future begins today." What do you mean by that?
The photo shows what the fire did.
But it is also a ray of hope, a positive message: the future begins now.
And if such a small animal somehow manages to survive this catastrophe, then we can too!
Forest fires are not uncommon in Greece. Is enough being done to prevent such disasters?
We work all winter to prevent such a big fire.
We clean our forests, the forest paths, so that we are prepared for the summer.
If these preparations did not exist, the disasters would be even greater.
But the forests are all over the country, and they are thickly forested and full of pine trees.
They are very flammable.
The last devastating fire was only three years ago. There were many victims back then. How do you perceive that?
What happened in Greece are direct effects of climate change. This period of heat and drought is a gigantic natural disaster. We have temperatures above 45 degrees, at the same time there are typhoons and floods elsewhere. As in Germany, I have deep pity for the victims of the flood. And I think that will threaten us too: enormous amounts of water fall here in Greece in winter, and the forests that have burned down will not be able to hold them back, not like they used to. The earth sends us SOS signals. We finally have to hear them.