BBQ party tonight

Drench the grass around it and go ahead 🙂

Definition of 'like covid all over again': someone somewhere taking a precaution I don't think is necessary or don't want to think might be necessary.

How often do your bbq’s cause a fire? A proper well managed bbq is absolutely fine. A disposable one on the grass is not. This is Covid mentality again.

This thread is an eye opener. How many fires are started because of a stand alone gas/charcoal bbq!?

Get on with the bbq on a patio and as someone else said, get a hose/bucket of water nearby if you are that worried.

Wouldn’t even cross my mind that we couldn’t have a bbq in the garden..

Have people over but cook food in the kitchen.

It only said disposable BBQ's

Tell that to my sister whose gas BBQ caught on fire.

Um, neither. I actually was agreeing with you.
My first paragraph was sarcasm aimed at the posters and their buckets of water that'll apparently put out a fire on dry grass before it takes hold🙄.

i meant from the stress

You're not funny, just making yourself sound daft.

By all means if you don’t want to use your BBQ then don’t, but don’t pretend you’re helping out firefighters. The vast, vast majority of wildfires are started deliberately or by discarded cigarette butts and in some cases disposable BBQs. For house fires, the most common causes are actually indoor cooking equipment (unattended stoves) and faulty wiring. So all the self righteous people saying they will cook inside this weekend to do their bit are actually statistically more likely to start a fire unless you’re going for cold salads only 🤷🏼‍♀️

They said charcoal BBQs are banned on total fire ban days. Gas BBQs are still permitted, precisely because they pose a negligible risk.

Indeed. It was the Fire and Rescue Services that asked the government to send the alert out, and with very good reason.

That’s how I feel. Doesn’t matter whether you don’t trust the Government, disagree whether the alert should have been sent as not an emergency, BBQs aren’t that risky etc, there are many firefighters out there having an horrendous time trying to save people, homes livelihoods, animals etc and if that means fewer BBQs in the next few weeks it’s the least most of us could do. It’s not a big deal for us but it could be a big deal for them

It wouldn’t sit right with me. It would feel like two fingers up at all the fire fighters who have been working tirelessly recently in our area. They must feel like it’s a loosing battle (theres been various arsons in our town). They risk their lives and I’m sure they have had annual leave cancelled too.

Well said!

I don’t see anyone making up rules

i I see people saying you’d be a selfish idiot to do this thing, whether it’s permitted or not.

This reminds me of Covid when people made up rules that didn’t exist

Can’t imagine there are many firefighters sitting on their arses. If there’s nothing going on in their area I’m sure many of them are being drafted to other areas

Some perspective? Are you serious?

Surely someone "in the risk business" can't be oblivious to the devastation being caused by these fires. If you are, you need to turn your television on, look at online news, read a fucking newspaper.

Perhaps you live somewhere that isn't affected. If so, lucky you. You won't have had the experience of watching the mountain you live on in flames, wondering if and when it will get to you. Seeing the residents in the village a mile away from you being evacuated from their homes. Choking on the thick smoke and having to stay indoors with the windows closed in 30°c temperatures. If you had, you might have a better understanding of what other people are going through. That is my "perspective" and that of my neighbours.

Don't underestimate how this is affecting many communities in the UK. Not just the ones directly affected, but the ones miles from the fires who are are affected by the smoke.

You need to hope that it's not your area next, because if enough people like you think a barbecue sausage is worth the risk "negligible" or otherwise you might not stay lucky.

Says the person who thinks “half the country is ablaze”. It very clearly isn’t. Calm yourself down and get some perspective.

Why aim for "negligible risk" when "no risk" is so easily achievable?

Do you have any understanding of how serious the situation is? Do you realise that people are frightened for a very good reason? That your barbecue - however "negligible" the risk it poses still has the potential to devastate lives?

People are losing their homes, their animals and their livelihoods. The damage to the countryside and wildlife is devastating. Over the last few weeks the air outside our home has frequently been filled with the smell of smoke from fires in our area, some of them 50 miles and more away and several in the immediate area where I live.

My brother is a fire officer and the horrendous conditions he and his colleagues have been working in and the things they have seen are unimaginable to anyone hasn't been there.

Thankfully, it looks like most people aren't selfish enough to take unnecessary risks because "my barbecue is only a little bit risky".

I hope you have absolutely no responsibility for public safety or risk assessment/mitigation, because your selfish attitude is a disgrace.

It's disposable BBQs I'm question as they are too close to the ground and then hot coals get dumped into bins .
A proper BBQ isn't dangerous and isn't what they are asking you to refrain from

Maybe the risk of having a BBQ hadn’t changed but the risk of emergency services being available has changed.