How to address late-night firepit smoke from neighbours diplomatically?

[Doodledoggle]

Hi all,

I have an issue with neighbours repeatedly having firepit bonfires late at night. I am asthmatic.

We live in the south and it hasn't been below 28 degrees in the day for weeks and so we look forward to the cool air at night.

Last night, for the third time this week I fell asleep to lovely cool fresh country air when we opened the windows at 9pm and woke up at 2am to the bedroom full of the smell of smoke.

Except last night it was so bad I had to sit downstairs taking repeated inhaler doses as I couldn't breathe. I still feel breathless despite many doses of fostair.

The problem is I don't know which neighbour it is and so I need to either knock on doors or send a note.

Our house is perpendicular to the village and our bedroom windows all face one way (long thin house).

Aibu to say something? How would I phrase if? I tend to go at these things like a bull in a China shop when I'm upset and I need some help with diplomacy here!

We are rural, but it is a village and in the summer months the breeze always blows towards our house as we are south/south west facing.

Can anyone help please?

Our neighbours have one of those fire pits. Last year they sat out most weekends with it burning. It stank. I wondered if they were cooking some foul smelling meat or fish but then remembered they're vegan so it must have been the wood. Our bedroom is at the back and when I went up the room stank of smoke.

sounds dire. But it didn’t impact your enjoyment of your garden throughout the summer?

I really don't know what's wrong with you.
You're afraid I'll implode, I'm very afraid for the people around you.
Don't be silly, don't be a troll.

Terrifying!

all I am pointing out is to have your neighbours stinking up your neighbourhood as you describe every weekend throughout summer sounds awful!!

If you're going to ask me a question, you need to quote my username, then I'll get a notification.

I didn't say that's what they did. Just stop being so stupid.

Eek

You said exactly that

I quoted

and my point was… sounded awful

Im just really impressed by a thatch, tied housing and your username. We don’t have thatch in these parts. Tied housing is that to an estates so estate workers?

I can fully sympathise as I have breathing issues caused by allergies. I have an air purifier and that does help.

We currently have a layer of pollen over every surface. Even one night and the cars and windows are COVERED. I hope you find a solution.

it does se m crackers having a bonfire or fire pit.

I'd be inclined to call the non emergency fire brigade line and see whether they'll come out and have a word on the basis that your neighbours are playing russian roulette with a massive wildfire that could destroy the area around them. What pricks light a firepit of an evening when there has been no rain for over a month and the temps are still reaching the early 30s in the South? Complete arseholes.

@redboxerclub it's not often I impress anyone 😂

You wouldn't be impressed with the thatch while you laid in bed listening to a squirrel/rat/family of mice playing in it yesterday morning..! Or at the cost of redoing the ridge every ten years and the whole thing every 25yrs. Or the ten year electrical report for the insurance. Or indeed the cost of the insurance!

Its a good job we love the house 😍🏡

Yes tied housing means that the majority of tenants work on the estate. Some of the houses are rented from the estate commercially too.

@TonTonMacoute How did you come to realise it was anti-social? Did a neighbour complain?

I had exactly this response when I rang the fire brigade earlier this week. Idiotic, totally gormless neighbour decided to light a huge bonfire, flames visible a good 4/5 ft over the 6ft fence and it was only set back a couple of feet away from that, it’s not a big garden. God knows what he was burning but it wasn’t just garden stuff it stunk.

I asked him (very politely at first!) to put it out as everyone surrounding had their windows open and he said ‘I can’t put it out I’m not sure how but I can let it die down?’

So no fire extinguisher then? Not even a bucket of water, or a hose to hand? WHAT AN IDIOT.

Totally tinder dry everywhere here, just feet away from wooden fences and he’s not sure how to put it out?!

I told the fire brigade this. They said it’s attended and currently not out of control so we won’t come out. Call us if it gets out of control or is left unattended.

One of the neighbours right next door to him went round, had an absolute fit and made him extinguish it. Probably worried about their fence and sheds, poor sods.

They won’t come out. Unfortunately.

I think it was some kind of "fragrant" wood. It was every weekend when it was fine weather but it didn't affect us too much as only our bedroom has a window on that side. I did feel for the people who complained though, because their living room and children's bedrooms face the fire garden. Our neighbours are nice people, I'm sure they just didn't realise it affected other people.

I am on the edge of asthma, and a bonfire a field away can make me very tight chested and coughing. It depends how the wind is blowing. Ditto woodburners in the street at right angles to mine.

Yes, by the time they lit the fire it was going dark and we'd gone inside.

OP for some reason there are posts on here that seem to think its perfectly acceptable for you to have to put up with this. It is not acceptable, medical conditions or not. We stopped using our fire pit years ago, as we realised it was blowing into neighbours gardens and we didn't think that was acceptable

You'll have to hope it never happens to you, or your alter ego.