BBQ party tonight

Yes exactly. The government knows many people understand this, reducing the call on firefighters, hopefully leaving enough resource for the people who can't or won't moderate their behaviour.

I think the problem with bbqs of any kind even at home is that you can say it will be safe because uncle Bob will be in charge standing by it at all times, but then he has a few beers and gets distracted, or nips to the loo, or asks someone to stand guard who doesn’t really know why. It takes seconds for sparks or flame to fly, see the garage nearly catching fire post above .

I bet your neighbours will be chuffed

Government-issued guidance is always a balance between 'what would be the ideal' and 'what can we realistically police/persuade people to do'.

They know many people will go further than guidance. They know some people will never comply.

They hope between these two groups they'll avoid a situation where there are too many fires on a single day.

Part of the reason for the alert is we are not a country that is traditionally impacted by wildfires, so people are not as knowledgeable about the risks as they are in parts of the world where summer wildfires happen a lot.

To the person who joked about smoking in thetr garden - stray cigarettes butts are a huge cause of wildfires. When we were in France last.month there were adverts and signs everywhere about not smoking outside anywhere near dry vegetation.

Common sense would be to avoid any open naked flames outside right now, regardless of whether they've been explicitly banned or not.

Yeah that too - I don’t know how you could enjoy it really, worrying your house was going to go up in flames. I wonder if it would even be covered by insurance seeing as it’s against advice?

Gosh that’s scary!

I would have stepped away from the "morally right" thing and said instead "plain common sense....but sadly that seems to be a thing of the past.

Yes. Another poster shared the link to it.

I am not a blind rule follower and wouldn't care what my neighbours think but I have to say that I couldn't enjoy a barbecue, mine or anyone else's because I'd be worried about what might happen. Gas barbi on a patio in a clear space with water available fine, anything else probably risky IMO. Mine is a Cobb which stands on a table and burns a single briquette I still wouldn't do it

It’s not my advice, it’s government advice. Which states that household barbecues should not be left unattended. Not that they shouldn’t be used at all.

We intend to go ahead with our bbq this evening. However, it’s a gas one, it’s on flagstones, there are no trees, grass or combustible materials within 20 feet or so. If any of those scenarios did apply, food would be cooked in the house.

The alert last night didn’t just mention disposable bbq’s it said and I quote “any activity that could start a fire, including disposable bbqs, fire pits…” a charcoal bbq is any activity that could start a fire!! I can’t imagine your neighbours will have a very good evening worrying about the possibility of their houses going up in smoke!
A gas bbq is supposed to be safer however I just wouldn’t bloody risk it! Just cook the food in the house and enjoy your party! No one died from oven cooked food they just might from bbq’d food at the moment!!

Fireworks! That’s shocking , I can’t believe people sometimes.

You’re missing the point - it’s not about what we are “allowed” to do. It’s about what is morally right to do under the circumstances.

No one needs to have a bbq - especially when you could host the same event using your oven or by doing a buffet.

It’s selfish and unnecessary but more than that it is also incredibly stupid as the person whose house you are most likely to set fire to, is your own.

Why would you risk it.

Everything is a tinderbox.

We planned to have a BBQ tomorrow. This was planned about a month ago.
I'd already told DH that I'm cooking the food indoors. Our garden isn't huge and what little grass we have is straw. DH would be at the BBQ the whole time, but it's not worth the risk as far as I'm concerned.
We have a huge George foreman that we'll take outside for the burgers, but other than that it will all go in the oven.

Every time you step out of your house there is a risk and your do that for all kinds of non essential reasons. There is guidance about how to make home BBQs safer, if the government wanted to they would've included all BBQs in the alert and not issued the additional safety guidance. You are free to add extra restrictions to your life, but following the government issued guidance isn't seen as an issue outside of Mumsnet

I actually haven't smelt any either, which is highly unusual, so other people are obviously being cautious too this summer and for good reason.

And incredibly you didn't need someone to tell you! I wish everyone had common sense.

Kind of my point I guess.

No, your own garden is the exception. We'll also raise everyone's taxes apart from yours. Don't worry about swimming lessons, your kids won't drown, only other people's, the water knows they're the exception.

I haven't risked a BBQ (proper one) in weeks. One stray spark could be a disaster. It's shame because I love a BBQ in summer, but it's just not worth the risk IMO.

I can't believe that 44% on here think its OK to light an outdoor BBQ right now. Do any of you watch the news and see the devastation to land and houses, eg in Stourbridge yesterday? All those houses in flames, completely destroyed.