To think bonfires are antisocial and unevessary?

[QuestioningStuff]

Why do people need to have them? If you have stuff you need to get rid of surely you can just take it to the dump or have it collected?

2 gardens over the back from mine someone has had one going since 7pm. My whole road stinks. I've just had someone ring my doorbell worried my house was on fire because the flames and ashes are coming over the top of the house.

It's been 3 and a half hours now and it doesn't appear to be dying down. It's getting bigger if anything. I won't be able to sleep until it's gone out for fear of us being burnt alive in our sleep.

AIBU to think this is just not on? Why do people do this?

[BlowingThroughTheJasmineinMyMi]

yep its so annoying, selfish and unnecessary.

one fire affects sooo many people, shutting windows, washing in, cant go outside, house stinks of smoke...

[QuestioningStuff]

Oops sorry for typos btw

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

I love a good bonfire but if flames are coming over your house then ring the fire brigade as that is a huge fire!

[BackforGood]

No. I love the smell of a fire.
Where I live, it can take 2 hours to do a trip to the tip - the queues are horrendous - if it's burnable, it's a far better option.
The dcs love a fire too.

[BabyMurloc]

If the flames are coming over your house and its got bigger I would report it as an out of control fire tbh.

[QuestioningStuff]

BackForGood but not everyone loves it! If it was something just you and your family could enjoy than fair enough but it inflicts itself on everyone.

[DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen]

We burn garden waste as there's too much to go in the car and the garden bin gets filled up very quickly. I'm not aware of anywhere that will collect leaves/sticks etc so we have a quick bonfire on cool nights when people can keep there windows closed and their washing is already in.

[MuddhaOfSuburbia]

I love a fire but in a built up area it has to be littlish

and you have to knock to warn the neighbours first, so everyone can get their washing in

[QuestioningStuff]

To be fair we're on a bit of a hill it's not scarily enormous but it's definitely getting bigger. How long do bonfires usually take?! I'm tired but won't sleep if it's still going with the anxiety of it.

[catzpyjamas]

I hate bonfires in nearby gardens. Our NDNs burn old paperwork in a brazier but always say to us first. They also took my washing in before they had a barbecue one sunny day last year. We had gone to the beach and came home to a neatly folded pile of dry washing wrapped in clean bin bags
Hope your neighbours run out of things to burn soon, Questioning

[CaptainAnkles]

My thoughts on this: If you live in a detached house with no neighbours and surrounded by land you own, go crazy with bonfires if you wish.
In towns, in a garden that is next to other people's gardens, where people could have washing out, don't have a bonfire, you thoughtless gimp.

[LosingTheWillToSkate]

To be honest whatever most people do in their garden inflicts on other people. If kids are running round shouting and playing it stops me from quietly laying in mine. Same for people who have music on, trampolines, bbqs etc.

As long as it isn't all the time then I don't care about other people's noise or bonfire smells. Its part of living close to others.

[ThroughThickAndThin01]

YABU

We have a 2 acre garden. A bonfire is a necessity. We try and be considerate - as do our neighbours I'm sure - but when you've got to have one, you've just got to have one.

[WhatALoadOfOldBollocks]

YANBU. If you live somewhere with no neighbours, fine, but in built-up areas they can be a right PITA. I also think they're generally unneccesary because paperwork and clippings can be shredded and composted, and leaves made into leaf-mould (leaves just produce so much smoke!)

[ghostspirit]

some people dont drive so cant take it to the dump. and some people dont have the money to get it collected.

[wonkylegs]

We have 1.5 acres of garden, bonfires are the only reasonable way to dispose of the amount of garden waste we produce. We compost as much as possible but not everything is suitable.
We are considerate of our neighbours and they are of us(similar sized plots)

[lostscot]

I hope you don't live near us! We've just bought a house with 1/3 acre and it hasn't been touched for years so we've got no option but to burn it. Previous owners had been collecting their garden rubbish in a heap 5 meters across and as tall as me plus dead trees, hedges and assorted rubbish. We'd have been banned from tip in a day and garden bin won't touch it. We try to burn only when the wind is blowing over the fields and away from anyone else.

[sprackenzyboiled]

YABU.

In some circumstances they are a practical means of disposing of waste.

[PunkrockerGirl]

YANBU. But I hate the rank smell of neighbour's barbeques every time the sun shines

[echt]

In open areas, it's clearly not a problem, but I can see that in most urban/suburban areas it is.

I live in a Melbourne suburb where all outside fires are banned because of the bushfire risk, and people a manage perfectly well without them.

However, the local council issues each household with a big wheelie bin for recycling, another for garden waste, and a smaller for household rubbish. The first two are collected alternately each week, the last every week. So what I'm saying is the council makes it easy for people to do the right thing. Maybe this is what needs to happen.

[EscapePea]

Tip: don't plan a trip to Belfast in early July.

[Micah]

We have neighbours who are a bit obsessed. They have bonfires every day if it's good weather. For no reason apparently other than entertainment for the kids. We live in a city, their garden is surrounded on all sides. They really can't have that much rubbish, plus our council is fab at removing any waste, even garden.

I don't mind now and again, but every day it's nice I go to hang my washing out, or do some gardening, and my garden is full of woodsmoke again.

Not even mentioning the night they decided to have fireworks too and actually set fire to the back of my house with a stray one.

Kids playing, trampolines, music I can cope with.

[SacreBlue]

love it pea was just about to say something similar. I do love a bonfire, reminds me of being in the guides, but the one opposite my house on the 11th is a pita - not for the fire itself - just the crap music blaring from about 11am to way past caring my bedtime