BBQ party tonight

[Grumpynan]

We have planned a family get together this evening with a charcoal bbq in the garden. I hasten to add it’s a proper one not disposable.

should we still go ahead, or should I play save and cook the food indoors, what’s everyone else doing,

I mean, it stresses disposable bbq, says nothing about kettle ones in a garden. But I don’t want to cause any problems, and tbh we have a lot of trees around us and I’m a little worried, DH says I’m being silly but ?

The alert only mentioned disposable bbqs.

people virtue signalling to show who can comply with and follow the rules the most are very weird! Giving Covid mask monitors

just be sensible. Obviously don’t bbq on a very dry lawn, have extinguishers to hand etc

Our big green egg is actually next to the pool.

In the very unlikely event it erupts into an uncontrollable fire tonight, I'll push it into the pool. I hope that will satisfy the fire wardens on here.

I think the risk is probably minimal but I wouldn’t take it myself.

The level of risk will also depend on how big your garden is and what it’s got in it at the moment. Even though charcoal has no naked flame I would worry that if the BBQ was tipped up, or some charcoal fell out and landed on the floor it might be incredibly difficult to stop a fire spreading at the moment in my own garden (which is dry as a bone). In Scotland last week though I probably would have been fine with it.

She's using a magical one with no heat or sparks

Also depending on where you live you’ll
probably have neighbours knocking on the door and, at worst, calling the fire brigade which might spoil the party mood! We’ve had a few fires near me- we live very close to heathland- so we’re all on red alert at the moment.

Honestly this once, could you not do some pulled pork in the oven or something?

It takes a tiny bit of sparking on dry grass, bone dry fencing, bone dry trees to spread. The phrase ‘spreading like wildfire’ is a simile because nothing moves like it. You’d be mad.

JFC. They have a bbq and pizza oven. Hardly unheard off.

I just don’t trust the BBQ brigade to all act totally sensibly. En masse, if 10,000 people have garden bbqs at the moment, something somewhere could go badly wrong. As a collective, I think we have a duty of care to one another just to not bother having a bbq. I’m cancelling the one I was going to have tonight (even though it’s a large closed bbq and my husband always stays with it 100% of the time and we would have buckets of water and it’s even near our hose, and we’re really responsible people). However, as a collective we all need to pull together. Missing a burger is hardly a sacrifice. There was a lot of selfish behaviour in Covid which was theoretically ok, but common sense suggested the perpetrator was just a tad selfish.

I think the real question is whether you'd feel regretful if your house and entire street burned down because your husband was fussing on exactly how the food was cooked? Is it REALLY worth the risk? I can't believe people have to ask the internet for such simple life decisions

Jesus Christ.

Totally agree with this, people shouldnt be lighting any kind of fire outside, kettle barbecue, or anything of the sort. Last night at least two of my neighbours had barbeques and it really was disconcerting, worrying if they were safe or not.

The street could burn down by cooking inside. I think OP should starve for the foreseeable just to be extra safe.

You're absolutely right. It's definitely the same thing.

Better to be safe and starve than sorry.

The alert states BBqs, Firepits not just disposable bbqs.

ignoring it will likely invalidate your insurance so don’t be an idiot

The alert was about anything that might pose a fire risk SUCH AS disposable bbqs

The alert was necessitated by the selfish stupidity of people. I doubt they’ll take any notice anyway. “I’ll do what I like and fuck everyone else”. It’s lack of consideration for others that’s damaging this country; that and lack of common courtesy.

This is it basically - any sensible person wouldn’t be having a bbq at the moment anyway

Good luck to you.

Excellent!

Yes exactly - if they considered normal BBQs a significant risk they would have included it explicitly. But they made a conscious decision not to. Even the fire services are stating only disposable BBQs and are now emergency call centres are being swamped by people like you calling in reporting their neighbours.

And an outdoor kitchen with stainless steel fittings.😎

Well I’ve got one. Don’t you?

I’m fine with you and all the other moral police on here thinking that. I can assure you it won’t be my BBQ starting a fire. As an actual sensible adult I’m well able to manage to safely operate a BBQ in hot and dry weather (as millions in Australia and elsewhere do every summer without issue).