AIBU to think the wildfire alert about barbecues was unnecessary?

[HollyhockDayssss]

AIBU to think the alert was unnecessary? I get wildfires are an issue but informing the public not to use bbqs isnt a life and death situation.

Well actually the chairman of the National Fire Chief's Council, an organisation that describes itself as voice of the fire and rescue service, has today said, "I don't think it was appropriate to use that, its a bit of a big cudgel......I think we have to be very careful about overusing it........."
Whereas he is not exactly endorsing my view, he is not totally in agreement with you either.
We need to have a serious conversation about what is an appropriate use of this tool so that it doesn't become simply a mouthpiece for the government but is, as it was intended, an early warning system for when there is an imminent threat to life.

How do you know it is not going to happen? Once the government of the day realises it can get away with sending messages to your phone on whatever subject they like and people will take notice, who knows where it will end?

It’s not going to happen because no government would be that stupid and the idea is not realistic. It also comes across as paranoid.

Just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean that the government isn't out to get me.

Just because you are not paranoid doesn't mean the government isn't out to get you too.

The government isn’t out to get me or you. Here endeth this wind-up.

Since they first set it up, they've only done it for an unexploded bomb being dug up in Plymouth and needing people to get out of homes/businesses en route for it to be safely detonated at sea (and not to all go stampeding down to the Torpoint Ferry to watch the big explodey thing being transported) and a couple of massive storms that posed risk to life. So I guess warning people so they don't get killed by explosion, trees and roofs dropping on their heads or burned to death seem to be where it ends so far...

Dogs and cats living together, that's where it ends.

You forgot the Human Sacrifice.

Mass hysteria! 😉

Should have been about 3 weeks ago when the fire near Bordeaux became significant.

Disposable barbecue ban for good.

“No prime minister would have Downing Street parties in lockdown - they wouldn’t be that stupid”, people probably said, before it came to light that they did exactly that.

If you are absolutely sure.

Thankyou. You have understood the gist of what I am saying.

Do I really need a government alert to tell me that? You see it said in the message that if you see flames you should dial 999 and when lots of people did just that, the fire service complained that they were overwhelmed with calls.
I think someone messed up badly.

Exactly my point! There was no need to use an alert to tell people something they should already know.

When Boris Cromwell banned Christmas in 2020, I thought there would probably be some minor scandal of a single MP visiting their family for Christmas; I really wasn’t expecting a scandal on the scale of Partygate, or the WhatsApp messages. So indeed, I underestimated their stupidity.

19 families lost their homes - how is that not serious?

Have some cutted up pear & have a nap.

It will make sense when you're a bit bigger

Of course the situation was serious - for those families and anyone nearby....but the whole point of the alert system, supposedly, was it was supposed to be targetted.

Sure if you're downwind of a fire ATM, that's when you need all the klaxons etc...otherwise,.no...alarm/alert fatigue/what's sometimes called the Crying Wolf effect kicks in, and it's dangerous..

We've already had discussions here and elsewhere about how to disable the alerts...looking ahead that is serious.

But they clearly fucking don't. That's the actual point.

Schools and employers have fire drills so that people recognise the sound and know what to do when it happens, rather than panicking, run around shrieking that we're all going to die, posting on Mumsnet or claiming it's all a conspiracy.

This is no different. A test to familiarise people with the sound and to make sure that they know it's a fucking stupid idea to light fires at the moment.

Do we (I'm sure that somebody is going to say yes, just to be contrary) complain that getting people to not attempt to use lifts, to make their way to a designated assembly point and wait for their presence to be recorded before they are told they can return to the building is utterly stupid and means that everybody will refuse to react when the alarms go off?

We're just going to have to fundamentally disagree on this I'm afraid.

The psychologists/human factors experts and others that look at accidents in things like the transport industries and even medicine generally really really really don't like alarm systems that are easily triggered and/or perhaps too frequently triggered.

Reason being there's a danger that people get habituated ("it'll only be the usual Monday practice a bit early, I'm not rushing") or start treating frequent alarms as false ("that thing is always going off") and cancel without reading, maybe perhaps even disable the warning system itself.....all the above has happened in the real world and disabling alerts has been mentioned on MN and elsewhere.

What is done is done, but HMG do need to be a bit careful about issuing blanket high level alerts/alarms when and where there is no need.

All of which would be true if this wasn't just the second time an alert had been issued, but say the 20th, and if people like you weren't severely underestimating the risks wildfires present.

I would have been more accepting if they would have directed the message to areas most severely impacted.

Almost everywhere south of the Tyne has been affected. When there's already a severe wildfire, it's too late to warn people to change their behaviour in that particular location.