Greece
'Hasina: A Daughter's Tale' screened in Greece
The Bangladesh Embassy in Athens, in cooperation with the first multilingual library in Greece, has hosted a screening of the documentary film "Hasina: A Daughter's Tale."
Held at the "We Need Books" library premises Sunday, the screening was attended by a good number of Bangladeshis, students, embassy officials, members of the diplomatic corps, and the local civil society.
The maiden screening of the docudrama in a country like Greece, the cradle of ancient and western civilisation, created a lot of enthusiasm and curiosity among the audience about Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, her family members and their role in the making of a modern, democratic, secular, and developing nation, said a media statement.
They were particularly amazed to see how Sheikh Hasina, daughter of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, had tried to cope with her most struggling time along with her only other surviving sister Sheikh Rehana following the brutal assassination of their father and all other members of their family.
The screening of the film was preceded by a short welcoming speech by the founder of the multilingual library Ioanna Nissiriou.
Bangladesh Ambassador Ashud Ahmed thanked the viewers for joining the screening of the documentary film organised as part of the Embassy's ongoing celebrations of the golden jubilee of the independence of Bangladesh.
He mentioned his embassy's plan to organise more such screenings in different corners of Greece in the coming days.
Ambassador Ashud hoped that Bangladesh would become a real Golden Bengal that would have prosperity, modernity, inclusivity, democracy and secularism as designed in Vision 2041 under the leadership of Sheikh Hasina.
Also read: Screening of 'Hasina: A Daughter's Tale' connects Kolkata audience
Tourists, rejoice! Italy, Greece relax COVID-19 restrictions
For travelers heading to Europe, summer vacations just got a whole lot easier.
Italy and Greece relaxed some COVID-19 restrictions on Sunday before Europe's peak summer tourist season, in a sign that life was increasingly returning to normal.
Greece’s civil aviation authority announced that it was lifting all COVID-19 rules for international and domestic flights except for the wearing of face masks during flights and at airports. Previously, air travelers were required to show proof of vaccination, a negative test or a recent recovery from the disease.
Under a decree passed by Italy's health ministry, the country did away with the health pass that had been required to enter restaurants, cinemas, gyms and other venues. The green pass, which showed proof of vaccination, recovery from the virus or a recent negative test, is still required to access hospitals and nursing homes.
Also read: Australia welcomes back tourists with toy koalas, Tim Tams
Some indoor mask mandates also ended, including inside supermarkets, workplaces and stores. Masks are still required on public transport, in cinemas and in all health care and eldercare facilities.
As of Sunday, visitors to Italy also no longer have to fill out the EU passenger locator form, a complicated online ordeal required at airport check-in.
“It was needed,” said Claudio Civitelli, a Rome resident who was having his morning coffee at a bar near the Trevi Fountain. Until Sunday, patrons had to wear a mask to enter bars and restaurants, though they could remove them to eat and drink. “We have waited more than two years.”
At a nearby table, Andrea Bichler, an Italian tourist from Trentino Alto-Adige, sat with similarly maskless friends.
Also read: India opens to vaccinated foreign tourists after 18 months
“It’s much better,” Bichler said. “Let’s say it’s a return to life, a free life.”
Public health officials say masks still remain highly recommended for all indoor activities, and private companies can still require them.
Even with the restrictions increasingly going by the wayside, public health officials urged prudence and stressed that the pandemic was still not over. Italy is reporting 699 cases per 100,000 inhabitants and is recording more than 100 deaths per day, with a total confirmed death toll at 163,500. But hospital capacity remains stable and under the critical threshold.
Given the virus is still circulating, "we should keep up the vaccine campaign, including boosters, and keep up behavior inspired by prudence: wearing masks indoors or in crowded places or wherever there's a risk of contagion,” said Dr. Giovanni Rezza, in charge of prevention at the health ministry.
Italy was the epicenter of Europe's outbreak when it recorded the first locally transmitted case on Feb. 21, 2020. The government imposed one of the harshest lockdowns and production shutdowns in the West during the first wave of the virus, and maintained more stringent restrictions than many of its neighbors in subsequent waves.
Greece declares 12 Russian diplomats unwelcome
The Greek Foreign Ministry on Wednesday announced that 12 members of the Russian diplomatic and consular missions in Greece have been declared as personae non gratae.
Also Read: Greece: Search continues for 12 missing in ferry fire
The decision was made in accordance with the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the 1963 Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, the ministry said in a statement, adding that the Russian ambassador had been earlier notified of the decision.
The statement didn't reveal any specific time schedule about the diplomats' departure.
Also Read: Greece to take 4,000 Bangladeshi workers every year: MoU
Greek PM phones Hasina, praises her leadership for impressive development
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Friday appreciated Sheikh Hasina for her leadership in the impressive socio-economic development of Bangladesh.
He communicated his appreciation during a 10-minute phone call conversation with the Bangladesh Prime Minister at 3:30pm.
Read:Not chanting 'Joy Bangla' means undermining independence : PM
“Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina received a phone call from the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis today and exchanged greetings on the 50 years of bilateral relations,” said a press release of PMO Press Wing here.
The Prime Minister of Greece congratulated Sheikh Hasina on the golden jubilee of Bangladesh’s independence and the birth centenary of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The Bangladesh PM also congratulated her Greek counterpart on the bicentennial of the Hellenic Republic observed last year.
“Prime Minister Mitsotakis appreciated the Bangladesh Prime Minister’s leadership in the impressive socio-economic development of the country,” said the release.
During the conversation, the two leaders observed that the relations between Bangladesh and Greece were based on a set of common values that they shared in the national and international contexts.
The two Prime Ministers acknowledged the role played by the Bangladesh expatriate workers in Greece to the economies and societies of both countries.
Read:PM vows to build a beautiful future for children
They expressed satisfaction at the MoU on Migration and Mobility that was signed between the two sides in February 2022.
The two leaders emphasised the importance of regular cultural exchanges and other people-to-people contacts.
Prime Minister Hasina thanked ‘Team Europe’ for donating vaccines to Bangladesh.
The two leaders exchanged views on enhancing trade cooperation. They also agreed to support each other’s candidatures in the UN and other international organisations.
The Greek Prime Minister invited Sheikh Hasina to visit Athens at a mutually convenient time.
Prime Minister Hasina also invited her Greek counterpart to visit Bangladesh soon.
Greece: Search continues for 12 missing in ferry fire
Rescue teams in Greece searched Saturday for 12 people believed to be missing from a ferry that caught fire in the Ionian Sea while en route to Italy and continued burning for a second day.
After working all night to extinguish the blaze, firefighting vessels surrounded the Euroferry Olympia, which was carrying more than 290 passengers and crew members when the fire broke out onboard Friday.
The Greek coast guard and the crews of other boats evacuated some 280 people to the Greek island of Corfu. Authorities increased the number considered missing from 11 to 12 after discovering that a person from the ferry was not listed on the passenger manifest.
Also read: Brazil mudslide death toll is at 117, police say 116 missing
“A very large rescue and firefighting effort is still underway, as is the search for the 12 people missing that include three Greeks and our thoughts with all their families,” shipping minister Giannis Plakiotakis told private Skai television.
The other missing passengers were believed to be mostly from Bulgaria. Officials said the people rescued included citizens of Albania, Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Italy, and Lithuania.
The fire broke out three hours after the ferry left the port of Igoumenitsa in northwest Greece for the Italian port of Brindisi. The vessel was transporting 153 trucks and 32 cars.
Also read: 18 trawlers sink in Bay, 3 fishermen go missing
The cause of the blaze was unclear. The Italy-based company that operated the ferry said the fire started in a hold where vehicles were parked.
Greece to take 4,000 Bangladeshi workers every year: MoU
Greece is keen to take 4000 workers from Bangladesh every year, said Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Ministry on Wednesday.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Bangladesh and Greece in this regard at Prabashi Kalyan Bhaban on Wednesday noon.
Expatriates' Welfare and Overseas Employment Minister Imran Ahmed and Greek Minister for Migration and Asylum, Panagiotis Mitarachi signed the MoU on behalf of their governments.
According to the MoU, Greece will import Bangladeshi workers and will consider legalising the stay of Bangladeshis working there illegally.
READ: Another 98 Bangladeshi workers leave for S Korea
Under the MoU, 4000 Bangladeshi workers will get a chance to go to Greece every year and the government of Greece will provide a temporary work permit for five years.
They will take seasonal workers under agriculture sector now and more will be taken gradually in other sectors after discussion between the two countries.
All the Bangladeshi workers, who will get work permit, have to return to Bangladesh after expire of five-year permit.
“This is the first ever MoU with any European country and through it Bangladeshi workers will work in Greece legally,” said the Minister.
Greece: 13 dead, others missing in new migrant boat accident
At least 13 people died after a migrant boat capsized in the Aegean Sea late Friday, bringing to at least 27 the combined death toll from three accidents in as many days involving migrant boats in Greek waters.
The sinkings came as smugglers increasingly favor a perilous route from Turkey to Italy, which avoids Greece’s heavily patrolled eastern Aegean islands that for years were at the forefront of the country’s migration crisis.
The coast guard said 62 people were rescued after a sailboat capsized late Friday some 8 kilometers (5 miles) off the island of Paros, in the central Aegean. Survivors told the coast guard that about 80 people had been on the vessel.
Five coast guard patrol boats, nine private vessels, a helicopter and a military transport plane continued the night-time search for more survivors, authorities said, while coast guard divers also participated.
READ: Migrant boat capsizes in English Channel; at least 31 dead
Smugglers based in Turkey increasingly have packed yachts with migrants and refugees and sent them toward Italy.
Earlier, 11 people were confirmed dead after a sailboat Thursday struck a rocky islet some 235 kilometers (145 miles) south of Athens, near the island of Antikythera. The coast guard said Friday that 90 survivors ‒ 52 men, 11 women and 27 children ‒ were rescued after spending hours on the islet.
“People need safe alternatives to these perilous crossings,” the Greek office of the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, said in a tweet.
In a separate incident Friday, Greek police arrested three people on smuggling charges and detained 92 migrants after a yacht ran aground in the southern Peloponnese region.
And a search operation also continued for a third day in the central Aegean, where a boat carrying migrants sank near the island of Folegandros, killing at least three people. Thirteen others were rescued, and the survivors reported that at least 17 people were missing. Authorities said the passengers originally were from Iraq.
Greece is a popular entry point into the European Union for people fleeing conflict and poverty in Asia, the Middle East and Africa. But arrivals dropped sharply in the last two years after Greece extended a wall at the Turkish border and began intercepting inbound boats carrying migrants and refugees ‒ a tactic criticized by human rights groups.
READ: One drowns, another missing in boat capsize in Chandpur
More than 116,000 asylum-seekers crossed the Mediterranean to reach EU countries this year as of Dec. 19, according to UNHCR. The agency said 55% traveled illegally to Italy, 35% to Spain, and 7% to Greece, with the remainder heading to Malta and Cyprus.
'We fought a great battle': Greece defends wildfire response
As the worst of Greece’s massive wildfires were being tamed Tuesday, the country’s civil protection chief defended the firefighting efforts, saying every resource was thrown into the battle against what he described as the fire service’s biggest-ever challenge.
Nikos Hardalias said authorities “truly did what was humanly possible” against blazes that destroyed tens of thousands of hectares (acres) of forest and hundreds of homes, killed a volunteer firefighter and forced more than 60,000 people to flee. Two other firefighters were in intensive care with severe burns.
“We handled an operationally unique situation, with 586 fires in eight days during the worst weather conditions we’ve seen in 40 years,” Hardalias told a news conference. “Never was there such a combination of adverse factors in the history of the fire service.”
Greece had just experienced its worst heat wave since 1987, which left its forests tinder-dry. Other nearby nations such as Turkey and Italy also faced the same searing temperatures and quickly spreading fires.
READ: Wildfires rampage in Greek forests, cut large island in half
Worsening drought and heat – both linked to climate change – have also fueled wildfires this summer in the U.S. West and in Siberia in northern Russia.
Scientists say there is little doubt that climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is driving extreme events. Researchers can directly link a single event to climate change only through intensive data analysis, but they say such calamities are expected to happen more frequently.
In Greece, the worst blaze still burning Tuesday was in the northern section of Evia, the country’s second-largest island, which is linked by a bridge to the mainland north of Athens and is a favorite holiday destination for the Greek capital’s residents.
Nearly 900 firefighters, 50 ground teams and more than 200 vehicles were fighting the blaze that broke out Aug. 3, the fire service said. They included crews from Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Cyprus and Poland — part of a huge international response to Greece’s plea for assistance.
Fourteen helicopters provided air support Tuesday on Evia, including three from Serbia, two from Switzerland and two from Egypt. The wildfire on Evia, unlike many in the United States, was burning in an area in which villages and forests are entwined.
Hardalias said all the fire fronts on Evia were waning, but firefighters were guarding the perimeter of the blaze, particularly around a cluster of villages that were among the dozens evacuated on the island in recent days. However, heavy smoke from the fires has often reduced visibility to zero, making it too dangerous for water-dropping aircraft to assist ground forces.
READ: Californians endure intense weekend of wildfire fears
According to EU wildfire data and satellite imagery, more than 49,000 hectares (121,000 acres) have burned up on Evia — by far the worst damage from any of the recent fires in Greece.
Several other wildfires were burning in the country, with the most significant in the southern Peloponnese region, where new evacuations were ordered Tuesday afternoon. About 400 firefighters, including teams from the Czech Republic and Britain, battled that blaze, assisted by five helicopters and 23 water-dropping planes from several countries.
A judicial investigation is under way into the causes of the fires, including any links to criminal activity. Several arson suspects have been arrested.
“I don’t know whether there is any organized arson plan, that’s not my job,” Hardalias told the news conference. But it was his “feeling” that at least with the flames near ancient Olympia, the seven or eight fires that broke out in close succession could be due to arson.
Also on Tuesday, a woman convicted of intentionally starting a fire in an Athens park last week was sentenced to five years in prison.
Residents and local officials on Evia have complained about a lack of water-dropping planes in the early stages that they say left the fire to grow to such proportions that flying became too hazardous.
Hardalias argued that when the Evia blaze broke out, authorities were already facing other enormous challenges. A major forest fire was burning through the northern outskirts of Athens, forcing the evacuation of thousands, and another was coursing through villages towards ancient Olympia — a hugely important archaeological site in the Peloponnese where the ancient Olympic Games were held for more than 1,000 years.
“Every house lost is a tragedy for all of us. It’s a knife in our heart,” he said.
Asked whether he was satisfied with the country’s firefighting response, Hardalias said: “Obviously, there can be no satisfaction after such a catastrophe. But all our available forces, ground and airborne, were sent immediately to the fires.”
“Whether we could have done something different remains to be seen,” he said. “But in any case, we fought a great battle, and the losses were among those fighting it, not among civilians.”
Greek authorities have emphasized saving lives, issuing evacuation alerts for dozens of villages and neighborhoods this summer. In 2018, a deadly fire that engulfed a seaside settlement near Athens killed more than 100 people, including some who drowned trying to escape the flames and smoke by sea.
READ: Town burns to ashes in raging Northern California wildfire
Critics say the government’s focus on evacuating villages prevented villagers with local knowledge from helping firefighters and led to more property destruction.
Greece’s center-right government has pledged to provide compensation to everyone who suffered loss from the wildfires and to undertake a massive reforestation effort to replace the trees that have burned.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told a special cabinet meeting Tuesday that owners of destroyed or damaged homes would receive up to 150,000 euros ($176,000) in state compensation, with initial payments to begin next week, while businesses and farmers will also get support and tax breaks.
In southwest Turkey, crews battled two fires Tuesday in the coastal province of Mugla, including a brush fire near Bodrum’s Gumusluk resort neighborhood. Bodrum’s mayor said the fire was close to being extinguished and no residential areas were threatened.
Meanwhile, firefighters quickly put out a new blaze in a forest in Istanbul’s Sariyer district.
Wildfires rampage in Greek forests, cut large island in half
Three large wildfires churned across Greece on Saturday, with one threatening whole towns and cutting a line across Evia, the country’s second-largest island, isolating its northern part. Others engulfed forested mountainsides and skirted ancient sites, leaving behind a trail of destruction that one official described as “a biblical catastrophe.”
A flotilla of 10 ships — two Coast Guard patrols, two ferries, two passenger ships and four fishing boats — waited at the seaside resort of Pefki, near the northern tip of Evia, ready to evacuate more residents and tourists if needed, a Coast Guard spokeswoman told The Associated Press, on customary condition of anonymity.
Firefighters were fighting through the night to save Istiaia, a town of 7,000 in northern Evia, as well as several villages, using bulldozers to open up clear paths in the thick forest.
Read: Thousands flee homes outside Athens as heat fuels wildfires
The fire on Evia forced the hasty Friday night evacuation of about 1,400 people from a seaside village and island beaches by a motley assortment of boats after the approaching flames cut off other means of escape.
The other dangerous fires were one in Greece’s southern Peloponnese peninsula, near Ancient Olympia and one in Fokida, in the Central Greece Region, north of Athens. The fire in Ancient Olympia moved east, away from the ancient site, threatening villages in a sudden flare-up Saturday afternoon.
North of Athens, the fire on Mount Parnitha, a national park with substantial forests, was still burning with occasional flare-ups, but a Fire Service spokesman told the AP late Saturday that containment efforts were “going well.” Deputy Civil Protection Minister Nikos Hardalias told reporters Saturday night that firefighters hoped to contain the fire Sunday.
Smoke from that fire was still spreading across the Athens basin. Earlier, the blaze had sent choking smoke across the Greek capital, where authorities set up a hotline for residents with breathing problems.
One volunteer firefighter died Friday and at least 20 people have been treated in hospitals over the last week during Greece’s most intense heat wave in three decades. Temperatures soared up to 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit).
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Saturday visited the fire department’s headquarters in Athens and expressed his “deep sadness” for the firefighter’s death. He later visited the airport, west of Athens, from which firefighting planes take off and thanked the pilots, Greek as well as French, who arrived to support the firefighting effort.
Securing aid for everyone affected by the wildfires will be “my first political priority,” he said, promising that all burnt areas would be reforested.
“When this nightmarish summer has passed, we will turn all our attention to repairing the damage as fast as possible, and in restoring our natural environment again,” Mitsotakis said.
A local official in the Mani area of southern Peloponnese, south of Sparta, estimated the wildfire there had destroyed around 70% of her area.
Read:In heat emergency, southern Europe scrambles for resources
“It’s a biblical catastrophe. We’re talking about three-quarters of the municipality,” East Mani Deputy Mayor Eleni Drakoulakou told state broadcaster ERT, pleading for more water-dropping aircraft.
Other officials and residents in southern Greece phoned in to TV programs, appealing live on air for more firefighting help.
Greece requested help through the European Union’s emergency support system. Firefighters and aircraft were sent from France, Spain, Ukraine, Cyprus, Croatia, Sweden, Israel, Poland, Romania, Switzerland and the United States.
On Saturday alone, Germany’s Disaster Assistance agency tweeted that 52 firefighters and 17 vehicles from Bonn and 164 firemen and 27 vehicles from Hessen were heading to Athens to help. Egypt said it was sending two helicopters, while 36 Czech firefighters with 15 vehicles left for Greece.
The causes of the fires are under investigation. Three people were arrested Friday — in the greater Athens area, central and southern Greece — on suspicion of starting blazes, in two cases intentionally.
Another person, a 47-year-old Greek, was arrested Saturday afternoon in the Athens suburb of Petroupoli for lighting two fires in a grove and setting four dumpsters on fire, police said.
Greek and European officials also have blamed climate change for the large number of fires burning through southern Europe, from southern Italy to the Balkans, Greece and Turkey.
Fires described as the worst in decades have swept through stretches of Turkey’s southern coast for the past 10 days, killing eight people. The top Turkish forestry official said 217 fires had been brought under control since July 28 in over half of the country’s provinces, but firefighters still worked Saturday to tame six fires in two provinces.
In Turkey’s seaside province of Mugla, a popular region for tourists, some fires appeared to be under control Saturday but the forestry minister said blazes were still burning in the Milas area. Environmental groups urged authorities to protect the forests of Sandras Mountain from nearby fires.
Further north, at least six neighborhoods were evacuated due to a wildfire in western Aydin province, where shifting winds were making containment efforts difficult, Turkish media reported.
Read: Californians endure intense weekend of wildfire fears
Municipal officials in Antalya, on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast, said a wildfire was still burning around the Eynif plain, where wild horses live.
Massive fires also have been burning across Siberia in northern Russia for weeks, forcing the evacuation Saturday of a dozen villages. In all, wildfires have burned nearly 15 million acres this year in Russia.
In the U.S., hot, bone-dry, gusty weather has also fueled devastating wildfires in California.
Thousands flee homes outside Athens as heat fuels wildfires
More than 500 firefighters struggled through the night to contain a large forest blaze on the outskirts of Athens, which raced into residential areas Tuesday, forcing thousands to flee. It was the worst of 81 wildfires that broke out in Greece over the past 24 hours, amid one of the country’s most intense heatwaves in decades.
Civil Protection chief Nikos Hardalias said the fire north of Athens was “very dangerous,” and had been exacerbated by strong winds and tinder-dry conditions due to the heat that reached 45 Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in the area.
Read:In heat emergency, southern Europe scrambles for resources
No severe injuries were reported, and authorities said several buildings had been damaged but no detailed breakdown was available. The cause of the blaze was unclear.
“We continue to fight hour by hour, with our top priority being to save human lives,” Hardalias said. “We will do so all night.”
“These are crucial hours,” Hardalias said. “Our country is undergoing one of the worst heatwaves of the past 40 years.”
The wind dropped later Tuesday, and the regional governor for greater Athens, Giorgos Patoulis, said this could allow the fire to be tamed after water-dropping aircraft resume operations at first light Wednesday.
“If the winds don’t grow it can be brought under control by the early morning so the planes can provide the final solution,” he told state ERT TV.
The blaze sent a huge cloud of smoke over Athens, prompting multiple evacuations near Tatoi, 20 kilometers (12 1/2 miles) to the north and forcing the partial closure of Greece’s main north-south highway. Residents left their homes in cars and on motorcycles, often clutching pets, heading toward the capital amid a blanket of smoke.
One group stopped to help staff from a riding school push their horses into trucks to escape the flames.
Fire crews went house to house to ensure that evacuation orders were carried out, and 315 people were escorted to safety after calling for help. Authorities said nobody was listed as missing, and Greek media said six people required treatment for light breathing complaints.
Read:At least 2 killed in German chemical blast; 31 injured
As the heat wave scorching the eastern Mediterranean intensified, temperatures reached 42 degrees Celsius (107.6 Fahrenheit) in parts of the Greek capital. The extreme weather has fueled deadly wildfires in Turkey and blazes in Italy, Greece, Albania and across the region.
Wildfires also raged in other parts of Greece, prompting evacuations of villages in Mani and Vassilitsa in the southern Peloponnese region, as well as on the islands of Evia and Kos, authorities said. A total 40 blazes were raging late Tuesday.
The fires prompted Greek basketball star Giannis Antetokounmpo to cancel celebrations planned in Athens for the NBA championship he won recently with the Milwaukee Bucks.
“We hope there are no victims from these fires, and of course we will postpones today’s celebration,” Antetokounmpo wrote in a tweet.
Earlier, authorities closed the Acropolis and other ancient sites during afternoon hours. The site, which is normally open in the summer from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., will have reduced hours through Friday, closing between midday and 5 p.m.
The extreme heat, described by authorities as the worst in Greece since 1987, has strained the national power supply and fueled the wildfires.
The national grid operator said the power supply to part of the capital was “endangered” after part of the transmission system, damaged and threatened by the fires, was shut down.
Seven water-dropping planes and nine helicopters were involved in the firefighting effort near Athens, including a Beriev Be-200 amphibious aircraft leased from Russia. They ceased operations after dark for safety reasons.
Read:Europe’s summer tourism outlook dimmed by variants, rules
The blaze damaged electricity pylons, adding further strain on the electricity network already under pressure due to the widespread use of air conditioning.
The Greek Fire Service maintained an alert for most of the country for Tuesday and Wednesday, while public and some private services shifted operating hours to allow for afternoon closures.
Hardalias appealed to the public for high vigilance.
“Because the heatwave will continue in coming days, please avoid any activity that could spark a fire,” he said.