If the Athenians cannot leave their home without mouth and nose protection these days, it is not because of the pandemic.

In the north of the Greek capital, the forests are on fire.

Locals report that you can hardly breathe outside.

Above the city: a heavy bell of smoke.

The air is stuffy.

It smells like fire.

Ash rains from the sky.

The terrace of Katharina Krannich's holiday apartment is also covered with a fine layer of ash. Since the end of July, the 38-year-old from Halberstadt has been vacationing with her family in Greece, in Koukaki, an Athens district near the Acropolis. At 2:25 p.m. on August 3, her cell phone beeped. An emergency text message from the Greek civil defense: It is burning near Athens. Two more warnings followed two hours later. Since then the sky has been dark. “That is threatening. I keep checking where the fires are. Especially on Wednesday I was scared. The clouds were jet black. "

On Wednesday the fire advanced as far as the Athens suburb of Varympompi. There are many farms in the forested region that have been evacuated. Residents had to leave their homes, animals were rescued, roads were closed. Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games, was also surrounded by flames. The fire brigade was able to save the ancient site. But a visit is no longer possible for the Krannich family: “We wanted to see the Olympics. Of course that is no longer possible, ”says Krannich. “Before every excursion, we check what the situation is like on site and whether we are far enough away from the fires. And I think about what we can do in an emergency. "

Since the fire at Varympompi, the family usually doesn't go out until evening anyway: “It's just extremely hot.” ​​No matter where you go, the clouds of smoke can be seen in the sky from everywhere.

Even when they were bathing on Lagonisi beach nearly 40 kilometers away, they looked at the cloud of smoke near Athens.

It's the longest heat wave since 1987

Heat and forest fires are not uncommon for the Greeks. But this time everything is different, say the locals. They not only suffer from the level of temperatures, but also from how long the heat wave has been going on. Otherwise it's only a few days, as Sakas says. It's been like this for over a week now. It is the longest heat wave since 1987. There were no air conditioning systems at the time, thousands of people died. In 1977 Athens set the temperature record in Europe: 48 degrees. In those days it almost got cracked.

After more than a week with temperatures above 45 degrees, it at least cooled down a little on the weekend. But in the coming days it should get hotter again. The humidity is threateningly low - which is not only a problem for health, but also for the fire brigade, because the fires can spread faster. It is also unusual that so many fires arise at the same time. The fire at Varympompi is only one of dozen in Greece. There has also been a fire on the islands of Rhodes and Evia since the beginning of August. And the situation worsened dramatically over the weekend.

Until Friday, one of the few good news was that there was almost no wind. As a result, the smoke did not escape over the capital. But the fire brigade was able to contain the fires. Fortunately it doesn't hurt, said the locals. Not like back then, in Mati. The disaster of July 2018 is still fresh in the minds of the Greeks. Back then, gusts of 90 kilometers per hour swept across the country when there was a maximum risk of forest fire. The flames spread rapidly, around 100 people died and more than a thousand houses burned down.