to think you should be able to stand near the Bonfire

[FunnysInLaJardin]

Went to the local Bonfire last night. It was in one field, we were all in another dark field separated by a hedge.

The result was everyone froze as no one could get near to the fire. Had to wait an age for the fireworks at 8.30pm in the dark and the cold. You get my drift.

AIBU to think that really on Bonfire Night you should be able to stand around the Bonfire?

YANBU but I guess it depends on numbers. If it wasn't a crowded crush then for sure they should let people do their thing.

it was a big local bonfire thing for a charity. In previous years they have let folk round the fire in the other field. This you they didn't, we all froze and so we have vowed to do our own thing next year!

i wonder if you went to the same one as me a village in the northwest? i agree though freezing!

Probably something to do with insurance. No one can be trusted nowadays doncha know

We were at a massive (organised) village bonfire last night and all the people in the front rows had to stand with their backs to the fire / put scarves round their faces because the heat was so intense! Couldn't move further away because of the crowd.

But in a separate field and behind a hedge sounds a bit over-cautious!

x2 no not North West, Channel Islands.

Twas a massive PITA and really took the fun out of Bonfire Night.

I have no doubt elf and safety was to blame. Sigh....

Hmm. Yes except that the wind can change direction with no notice. You can be perfectly safe standing 2/3m away from a large fire and be nicely warmed by it, then suddenly the wind changes and the flames are roaring right in your face and you have to skip back a few steps to avoid being toasted. But now you're in a crowded field and can can't skip back a few steps because there's a hundred people behind you so you get scorched.

Sometimes health and safety is a good thing

Course its health and safety!

And there's always the idiot parents who allow their kids to roam free range, or take their eyes off them.... no organiser wants that happening on their watch!

I've never been to a bonfire where you could stand close enough to get warm.

That would be pretty dangerous surely?

I've also never been to a bonfire where you can stand near it! Unless it's in someone's garden this is par for the course and was the same back in the 1970s when I used to go to our local ones.

Why would they let the public stand near a fire? People drink or are just plain stupid and someone would bloody fall in.

In the 70s we could always stand near it in our small village

We can stand near the bonfires at the two local ones - they both just have ropes around them, still plenty close to get very hot.

I'm sad I was too sick this year to go to either :(

In the 70's there wasn't even rope & we all used to help build it & take our foil wrapped potatoes to tuck in to the fire to cook!

My most memorable bonfire night was when the local pub decided to do a bonfire in a skip in the full car park, beneath some overhanging trees. A bit of elf and safety would have been good!

YABVVU even to use the term "elf and safety". I really dislike the way it's trotted out as a mindless sneer. If it wasn't for health and safety we would still have people regularly getting their arms torn off by machinery in factories, getting life-threatening illnesses through inadequate hygiene procedures and, yes, getting life-changing injuries from fireworks and bonfires.

Most displays I go to don't even have a bonfire, and the ones I have been to, never let you stand near them.

However, there's nothing stopping you volunteering to run next year's display. Then you can be responsible for making sure everyone is safe and you can let the public be next to the fire.

YABU for "elf and safety". No bonfire at our display this year. Such is life.

Serendipity,
What we have now is people who believe they have no responsibility. Because the organisers should see to it that it can't happen.

It leads to people drowning at the seaside becUse they thought the sea is like a swimming pool without any currents or tides.,

Was it in Jersey? Sounds like the kind of wank that went on when we lived there.

Itisnoteasy, do you want us to abandon any attempt at health and safety precautions in any and every context then?

Can you produce evidence that more people have drowned at the seaside as a direct result of health and safety legislation than have drowned for lack of H&S precautions?

At our local bonfire we had a rope barrier around the fire at some distance away. We also had firemen at intervals to make sure people weren't behaving stupidly. It was a huuuuge fire.

These things are not actually driven by H&S much of the time, it's about insurance for events and the stipulations placed upon organisers. Events can not run unless you abide by insurance rules re capacity, distances, measures in place, first aid cover etc
Having said that you should be eternally grateful for key H&S legislation unless you want to return to both adults and DC being injured with fireworks regularly, fatal crushes at events, concerts and football grounds, dangerous fairgrounds, lethal playgrounds with high level equipment over concrete and so forth. At work, return to people being killed and injured even more often by machinery or poisoned by chemicals. Ditch your seat belts and child car seats ... Because that's all 'elf & safety' that people are so keen to blame for things they don't like.

Oh and I'm sure less people now drown in rivers and the sea in comparison to the 70s due to increased awareness, widespread child swimming lessons, life guards, danger signs, life bouys and rings and so on.... That's all part of H&S too.

I agree phenomenon. my partner works in the quarrying industry and the company death toll before 'elf and safety' and now demonstrates very clearly why health and safety is a good thing.

It wasn't that too long ago that his colleagues were working with silica dust without dust masks on or working at great heights above moving machinery without harnesses.