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 ?

So if you know about risks and mitigation, how do you see the balance of impact vs benefit here.

the likelihood of causing a fire is heightened, and the impact of a fire would be huge.

the benefit of having a bbq vs cooking indoors is small.

if I were in charge of risk, and I think if you were too, you’d make the call not to take the risk here.

this is an avoidable risk with low impact of avoidance and high impact of the worst happens.

Yes the likelihood is heightened vs the base level, but is still negligible for a bbq in garden with all the mitigations in place as described. Just because the risk is higher doesn’t mean it is high. It is well documented that people are fundamentally terrible at quantifying risk, as you and many others have demonstrated on this thread. One txt message from the gov and you and everyone’s perception of the risk has changed hugely, yet the risk is no greater today than is was yesterday for example or will be tomorrow.
I am I charge of risk in my house and garden
and as already stated i used my outdoor kitchen this morning and will continue to use it.

It is your critical thinking skills which are lacking. You use the example of hillwalking. In poor weather conditions it is indeed more dangerous to do this, and therefore mountain rescue teams do ask people not to do so.

In any risk assessment you look at both the likelihood of the bad thing happening and the severity of the consequences if it does. It is the second part which is currently hugely higher than would usually be the case for a BBQ in the garden. Vegetation is tinder dry, so any fire which did start would be harder to put out and more likely to spread to other properties, and should anyone need the Fire Service (who do go out to garden BBQ fires every year, btw) they are much less likely to be available.

I agree she probably shouldn't use the bbq this weekend, due to not being able to relax and potentially upsetting the neighbours, but why would she get indigestion? I've never had indigestion from a bbq and will definitely be using mine again once this heatwave and wildfire risk is over! I'll be doing it in the pouring rain! 😆

As per my response to the previous poster, the likelihood, in your garden, with all the mitigations in place is still extremely low therefore the risk is negligible.

Yes, but if 10,000 people have a bbq at any time something could go wrong. Its about being sensible.

So I have to disagree
yes the risk is the same as yesterday or the day before. Heightened. I wouldn’t bbq then. Like I wouldn’t now.

id always weigh up the cost of avoiding vs the impact. In this case it’s low cost to avoid a low (ish) but heightened risk with catastrophic impact. I guess I don’t understand why anyone would weight that up and take that chance right now unless they don’t understand or don’t care

Yes but now it’s elevated risk with the tinderbox gardens. And the stretched fire crews.

You’ve made reasonable endeavours to reduce the risk to a level as low as reasonably practicable.

We are talking about (non-essential) barbecues.

No one has to have a barbecue so a "reasonable endeavour(s) to reduce the risk to a level as low as reasonably practicable" means reducing risk to "no risk at all" simply by leaving the barbecue in the shed/garage and cooking your sausages indoors.

Don't light unnecessary fires when half the country is ablaze.

Surely any fool can work that one out whether they are someone from the risk industry, or someone who isn't a complete moron.

Maybe the risk of having a BBQ hadn’t changed but the risk of emergency services being available has changed.

It's disposable BBQs I'm question as they are too close to the ground and then hot coals get dumped into bins .
A proper BBQ isn't dangerous and isn't what they are asking you to refrain from

Why aim for "negligible risk" when "no risk" is so easily achievable?

Do you have any understanding of how serious the situation is? Do you realise that people are frightened for a very good reason? That your barbecue - however "negligible" the risk it poses still has the potential to devastate lives?

People are losing their homes, their animals and their livelihoods. The damage to the countryside and wildlife is devastating. Over the last few weeks the air outside our home has frequently been filled with the smell of smoke from fires in our area, some of them 50 miles and more away and several in the immediate area where I live.

My brother is a fire officer and the horrendous conditions he and his colleagues have been working in and the things they have seen are unimaginable to anyone hasn't been there.

Thankfully, it looks like most people aren't selfish enough to take unnecessary risks because "my barbecue is only a little bit risky".

I hope you have absolutely no responsibility for public safety or risk assessment/mitigation, because your selfish attitude is a disgrace.

Says the person who thinks “half the country is ablaze”. It very clearly isn’t. Calm yourself down and get some perspective.

Some perspective? Are you serious?

Surely someone "in the risk business" can't be oblivious to the devastation being caused by these fires. If you are, you need to turn your television on, look at online news, read a fucking newspaper.

Perhaps you live somewhere that isn't affected. If so, lucky you. You won't have had the experience of watching the mountain you live on in flames, wondering if and when it will get to you. Seeing the residents in the village a mile away from you being evacuated from their homes. Choking on the thick smoke and having to stay indoors with the windows closed in 30°c temperatures. If you had, you might have a better understanding of what other people are going through. That is my "perspective" and that of my neighbours.

Don't underestimate how this is affecting many communities in the UK. Not just the ones directly affected, but the ones miles from the fires who are are affected by the smoke.

You need to hope that it's not your area next, because if enough people like you think a barbecue sausage is worth the risk "negligible" or otherwise you might not stay lucky.

Can’t imagine there are many firefighters sitting on their arses. If there’s nothing going on in their area I’m sure many of them are being drafted to other areas

This reminds me of Covid when people made up rules that didn’t exist

I don’t see anyone making up rules

i I see people saying you’d be a selfish idiot to do this thing, whether it’s permitted or not.

Well said!

It wouldn’t sit right with me. It would feel like two fingers up at all the fire fighters who have been working tirelessly recently in our area. They must feel like it’s a loosing battle (theres been various arsons in our town). They risk their lives and I’m sure they have had annual leave cancelled too.

That’s how I feel. Doesn’t matter whether you don’t trust the Government, disagree whether the alert should have been sent as not an emergency, BBQs aren’t that risky etc, there are many firefighters out there having an horrendous time trying to save people, homes livelihoods, animals etc and if that means fewer BBQs in the next few weeks it’s the least most of us could do. It’s not a big deal for us but it could be a big deal for them

Indeed. It was the Fire and Rescue Services that asked the government to send the alert out, and with very good reason.

They said charcoal BBQs are banned on total fire ban days. Gas BBQs are still permitted, precisely because they pose a negligible risk.

By all means if you don’t want to use your BBQ then don’t, but don’t pretend you’re helping out firefighters. The vast, vast majority of wildfires are started deliberately or by discarded cigarette butts and in some cases disposable BBQs. For house fires, the most common causes are actually indoor cooking equipment (unattended stoves) and faulty wiring. So all the self righteous people saying they will cook inside this weekend to do their bit are actually statistically more likely to start a fire unless you’re going for cold salads only 🤷🏼‍♀️

You're not funny, just making yourself sound daft.