AIBU to think heatwave barbecue reactions are starting to feel a bit Covid?

Yes you are being completely unreasonable. There is a huge risk of wildfires at the moment and all it takes is one tiny ember to set a hedge on fire.

This was in Birmingham yesterday…

Me too -safety professional that is.

I can read the government alert and can comply
I am qualified and competent to risk assess so will be BBQing tonight on my brick built BBQ in my garden. Either me or DH or another family member will be present at all times. It is likely to be alight from 4pm so will have gone out fully by about 7pm. We'll move the coals and spray with water before going indoors if there are any burning (unlikely) and do everything reasonably practicable to ensure no further risk when we are not present.

Is this a penis measuring contest too? I don't have one so will lose 🤣

I despair too and completely agree. How they have taken ‘a ban of disposable barbecues’ and extrapolated this is baffling.

It’s nothing to do with prevention of fires and completely to do with virtue signalling.

I hope they are avoiding driving their cars too as their car may catch fire and i have no idea how they are online risking their phone catching fire when they charge it. Utter idiots.

No, you just can't justify your nonsensicle position. You've made quite the fool of yourself, haven't you? Maybe you'd actually regain some dignity if you acknowledged you'd made a mistake?

Because that is what the government states they are for: https://www.gov.uk/alerts

No, I can't be arsed. You will do what you want and that's fine. Enjoy.

How do you know what they were meant to be? In countries were they’ve used them longer they use them for extreme weather. I got 7 in 2 weeks one year in Greece

That is not what phone alerts were meant to be above - they were meant to be about high risk to life. How effective do you think they will be in that regard as soon as people think it is another message telling them not to use disposable bbqs?

When they tested the alert system they warned people about the test so eg abused women with emergency phones could prepare.

I think this is your perception?
The govt have a way of communicating the need for action to reduce risk to everyone with a phone.

It would be a waste of resources to try and do this through multiple press releases that people might not see, might not remember the details of etc.

I don't feel like it's presented as more of a crisis than it is - pretty bad situation, that can be improved by reducing the number of open flames, hot charcoals, flammable fuels being used etc.

If people can't differentiate advice - advice which is pretty straightforward and understandable - from "propaganda" then I'd suggest that's a them problem.

In your 'professional' opinion @HJC88, can you explain to me how using my gas bbq on my large hardstanding patio, far away from fences, lawns or indeed anything flammable is a high fire risk and likely to burn my house down.

Where as instead you'd rather I cooked on my gas cooker in my kitchen sited directly next to my wooden kitchen cabinets and wooden kitchen worktop, and you'd consider that acceptable.

I don't consider either of them a high fire risk tbh, but I'd suggest that BBQing outside is probably the lower risk of the two.

Obviously, using a low down charcoal BBQ on a dry decking next to a wooden fence is stupid and would be covered under a high fire risk.

But safely using a responsibly sited gas BBQ in the garden is really not a problem, and anyone doing a very basic risk assessment would understand that.

BBQing in gardens is not banned, nor is it irresponsible. Carrying out high fire risk activities is, which would cover irresponsible BBQ activity, but not safe usage of a responsibly sited, attended gas BB'

the problem with disposable bbqs is they are put on the ground and discarded with hot coals in them. They have started fires. This is different from having a non-disposable bbq in your back garden.

Exactly. So much of it is preventable so that's what they're trying to do.
I feel so sorry for everyone who has had things destroyed in this way.

I live in SE Scotland and a farmer near me lost an entire field of crops to a preventable fire started by idiots.

Insurance only covered a small part of it. He lost the rest.

Whether we like it or not, our climate is changing. The sheer number of fires and heat-related deaths this Summer speak volumes about how poorly we are adapting to our new reality.

I can also imagine that BBQs are higher risk of accidents happening because people get sloshed and are busy socializing and are less careful than they would be in other contexts.

I agree that getting hysterical over people having a BBQ is too much. But hopefully putting that rule in place will help avoid the emergency services that are already overstretched having to deal with easily avoidable incidents.

Not having disposable BBQs is very sensible. But I do have some sympathy with you OP in that this seems to be government propaganda being sent straight to our phones ratcheting up general advice as some sort of crisis. It feels like trying to control the populace rather than asking people to take sensible precautions in a reasonable way through press releases.

Most people thought it was sensible when it all started.

Actually most people thought restrictions had come on too late seeing what happened in Italy at the time.

What makes you think it’s different this time?

100% agree.

Have you been to the south of france, Spain, Italy?
Theyve had many fires for many years. Theyre not banning bbqs.
Because it’s not bbqs at home that are creating the problem.

Its people starting fires for fun (like the one in Stourbridge that was started in several places at once). It’s people doing a camp fire in tge middle if the moors. And that includes disposable BBQ used in the middle of the countryside, on dry ground, surrounded and/or dead vegetation and grass.

The whole ‘you’re not allowed to have a bbq in your garden otherwise we’ll going to die in a fire’ is just not realistic nor helpful.

And all the while not one word about the REAL,reason we have so many cures. Climate change.
Are we going to do anything about that? Are we heck! We’re just going to build more data centres (each produce more carbon émondions than Heathrow airport + use all the water we have, even though we don’t have any either). We’re going to carry in drilling in the North Sea etc etc.

But yes BBQs….

I can't be arsed, burn your house down.

Well people phoning the police to complain that their neighbours are having a bbq are certainly a bit dim.

You haven’t risk assessed standing bbqs with any authority though.

Actually these are useful and sensible restrictions. Wouldn't say thst sbout vovid.

With respect, you clearly cannot risk assess, and you are making a fool of yourself. A disposible BBQ is a very much higher fire risk than a responsibly sited gas BBQ. The government and the policy agree with me. There is no reason to stop using a garden gas BBQ which is responsibly sited.

My case is that I spent my whole working life as a Chartered Safety and Health Practitioner ... Trained and qualified to make risk assessments at the highest and most complex levels .... And you?

this.

no one is determined to undertake high risk fire activities. They’re asking posters to stop making up guidance

I've yet to see anyone saying they are continuing to carry out high fire risk activities, or defending them.

The problem is people who are making up nonsensical arbitary rules that aren't in line with the intention of the policy and then judging people based on them. And this is very much like what happened during covid.

The intention of this policy is not to stop people BBQing or cooking in the garden. It is to ban activities with a high fire risk.

A disposible barbeque, close to the ground, producing sparks and taking a long time to cool down, and routinely not disposed of responsibly is a high fire risk and that is why their sale and use has been banned.

A garden gas barbeque, sited responsibly and attended, which doesn't give off sparks and cools down rapidly is not a high fire risk, which is why their usage hasn't been banned and it's perfectly reasonable to continue to use them.

I dispair of the people who can't make the distinction, and are shouting about reporting people who are doing nothing wrong by simply cooking responsibly in their gardens.