Kostas Lagouvardos and his colleagues at the Penteli Observatory, which offers sweeping views of Athens, are what you would call experts on wildfires. They have spent decades researching the link between meteorological conditions and deadly infernos, as well as tackling the challenge of forecasting when and where the disasters might happen.
But even they were caught off-guard by the wildfire that arrived at their door last August. “It was ironic,” says Lagouvardos, research director at the Institute for Environmental Research and Sustainable Development at the National Observatory of Athens.
The Penteli site, which forms part of the NOA and is home to the historic Newall refractor telescope, was almost engulfed by a blaze that spread from nearby Mount Pentelicus.