Forest fire smoke covers Athens, reaches islands in the Aegean Sea

Smoke from the forest fire in north-eastern Corinth covered Greek capital Athens and reached also distanced islands in the Aegean Sea. The smell of burning wood filled the air in the Greek capital that was also covered with a yellowish-grey cloud that affected visibility and covered also the Acropolis.

The visibility in Athens is getting worse by the hour as the fires to the west continue to burn out of control. #Greece pic.twitter.com/HtfkSBjLQV

— Derek Gatopoulos (@dgatopoulos) May 20, 2021

These aren’t clouds, it’s smoke. Smells like fire even in Athens #φωτια pic.twitter.com/lwMMBooe3R

— Fani Mari (@fani_breakeven) May 20, 2021

Ashes fell from the sky to balconies and vehicles.

Το μπαλκόνι μου Πειραιά στάχτες παντού pic.twitter.com/wGDtK2XNnL

— Nick Stefanes ☘️ (@Nick_TheLeader) May 20, 2021

Strong winds transferred the smoke not only to Athens located some 100 km away but also to the Cyclades and some of the Dodecanese islands.

Alepochori – Ikaria – Palaio Falito (Athens) – Syros via meteo.gr

The wildfire started on Wednesday night in Schinos area in north-eastern Corinth, near Loutraki and quickly wend out of control due to the strong winds that are expected to reach intensity of 6-7 Beaufort early Thursday evening.

Over 180 firefighters and several water-dropping aircraft are operating in the area, however, fire front extends to over 10 km.

Six villages and two monasteries were evacuated as preventive measure ion the mo9rning, three more early afternoon. The Civil protection ordered the evacuation sending SMS messages through the <112> emergency number.

The head of Civil protection has scheduled an emergency live briefing at 6 p.m. Thursday.

Authorities suspect arson.

On social media, Greek users “foresee” a new forest consisting of wind turbines.

What is interesting is that a large part of the pine forest on Gerania Mountains was burned down kineta wildfire (brown in the picture below) in July 2018.

Με καφέ ότι κάηκε στην καταστροφική φωτιά της Κινέτας το 2018, με πορτοκαλί ότι καίγεται τώρα. Όλο το βουνό "πιάτο". Αντίο Γεράνεια, καλώς ήρθες "ανάπτυξη". #Σχινος #Σχίνο #Φωτιά #Λουτράκι #Αλεποχώρι #Γεράνεια pic.twitter.com/mh99a5ukWY

— Εγκέφαλος Boltzmann 📡 (@bolltzmann) May 20, 2021

Now it’s the turn of the other half to be deforested (orange in the picture).

“Goodbye Gerania, growth welcome!”