Wildfires are really upsetting me

Chestnut

No matter how stupid people are their stupidity never fails to amaze me. I just want to slap them! And disposable barbeques should be banned and made illegal. I think there is a movement towards doing that, but it's too late for this summer.

It would be a good move to ban them even though it is too late to stop fires this year.
it is upsetting to see so many field fires and for people to have damaged homes.
We are fortunate to not have the fires on a huge scale as in the US or Australia though I think.

When the temp go up around 38or 40C they declare days of total fire Bans here. No lighting any fires whatsoever, including BBQs, in the open . Fines for throwing cigarette butts out of windows, no welding or use of anything that might produce sparks subject to a large fine or even jail. Why don’t you do the same ?

nanna8 If only we would. But it's August (our summer holiday month) and with Boris being in limbo nothing is happening at all at the moment so it's too late for this year.

I don’t know how you legislate against wilful stupidity. Not this year, but during a former very dry summer dh and I saw a group of teen boys sitting around a small fire in Richmond Park - this despite clear signs saying No Fires Or Barbecues.

Pleased to say dh went over, tore them off a strip, and waited until it was completely doused/stamped out.

We were wandering in our local park enjoying a cooler interlude in the early evening this week , and saw some people with a disposable barbeque, it's scorching hot at the moment so the idea of impromptu barbeques in public places is quite alarming. I think I read some supermarkets have stopped selling them for the time being.

TeacherAnne, I too objected to the assumptions in *Chestnut's post.

As I posted above, we use them at home in our garden in a big barberque. Ideal for two, and recycle the tray. We usually do it about once a year.

M0nica I never meant that everyone who uses them is irresponsible, but when you think how many are sold there's a good chance that a large number of them are left lying around to cause possible fires or burns. Here is a picture of a fire raging near Bournemouth at this very moment which was almost certainly caused by a disposable barbeque (they found one at the site of a little camp).
Like anything (dogs, litter) there are responsible people and irresponsible people. It just seems that the latter are growing in number all the time and they cause more and more trouble.

I'm guessing it's not the responsible people using them at home that we need to worry about. It's the groups of holiday makers, day trippers, campers etc of which we see many who think it might be a good idea to buy once and dispose of them. In the shops and cafés along our seafront you can grab a few cans of beer, coke etc and sitting on the next shelf are also disposable barbecues ready to grab at the same time. So sometimes it's just an impromptu purchase with no real thought. I don't think these people are going to take them home to re use.

This field has been burning for nearly an hour, it looks like it is: spreading to our local birdwatching marshes (which are currently tinder dry)

Under normal conditions this is a flood plain and has been waterlogged for as long as I can remember, I have lived here/had a family base here for 51 years.

Sometimes I just can’t bear the human race ?

I live in a first floor flat (top level, block of 4, so 2 gf, 2 ff). My lounge is south facing and has windows on two sides so it has been unbearable here (29.5° inside). My neighbour lit a fire pit at 10pm on Thursday, just as cooler air tried to flow through my flat right outside my bedroom window. I could have cried.

I'm worried that my compost heap might spontaneously combust. Perhaps I should throw water on it..

M0nica

Not everyone buying a portable barbeque is taking them into the great outdoors. If DH and I occasionally fancy a barbeque, we put a disposable barbeque in our normal barbeque and use that. It is just the right size for 2 or 3 people.

Nothing wasteful about it. We consume less charcoal than making a barbercue from scratch and the foil container and grill are recyclable. The disposable barbercue stays in the ain barbecue until burnto out and cold and I usually put some tin foil over it when we have finished. - The barbercue is on the patio, well away from anything flammable.

It is iritating when stupid people ruin things for people using items like this for there own convenience and in perfect safety. I have never in my life lit a barbercue other than in the safety of my garden.

How can it possibly be more convenient if you're putting it into a barbecue you've already got? Why not buy those bags of briquettes that you just light? Or just half the bag if you only want it for a couple of people? Seems ridiculous to buy a disposable one when you've got all the necessary equipment right there!

I live by Epping Forest and despite constant warnings and the fact that they are forbidden in the forest, people continue to use disposable bbqs.
A couple of weeks ago a fire (was) started in the conservation area opposite our road. There is no access for fire engines so the fireman had to carry water in packs on their backs to put it out. Those poor guys!
Today we were reminded that even sparks from a fire source in a garden that neighbours the forest can cause a fire. Hoping that people take notice.

We are used to seeing dreadful moorland fires up here, though this summer there haven’t been any so far. The usual causes are deliberate fire starting, either by stupid vandals or unscrupulous landowners or their gamekeepers. TeacherAnne and Monica thanks for your common sense, which is sadly lacking in some people.

Someone set fire to hay bales in the north of our county the other day, massive fire & scores of people living in the area had to be evacuated.

Regarding disposable BBQ’s, I know someone who took a group of children on a day trip to the beach, one of them seriously injured his foot when he trod on a disposable BBQ that had been covered over in the sand and abandoned, his foot was badly cut by the tray as well as burnt. They’re good if people dispose of them properly but there always ignorant selfish people who just couldn’t care less about the environment or safety of people or animals.

If hotter, drier summers are something we shall have to live with, then unfortunately the risk of water shortages and wild fires will increase.

Preventing this will of necessity mean that some of the things we have been accustomed to no longer will be necessary.

It is no skin of my nose if barbecues go out of fashion - I have no liking for food grilled over charcoal. To me it is a method of cooking that completely ruins good food, stinks the entire neighbourhood and takes longer than cooking indoors.

I appreciate that others hold a different opinion, which they are entitled to.

But barbecues may well be one of the things that need to be restricted or even completely banned.

Burning stuble was banned some years ago, and all forests have fire breaks, but it may be necessary to widen them. Ploughing up the edges of corn fields after harvest will not stop fires spreading, as fire can leap far greater distances than the edge of a cornfield.

If the general public cannot be educated to taking all rubbish, including glass bottles home with them, picking up cigarette ends and used matches if they smoke out doors and only lighting fires in specially designated places outdoors, governments may well have to restrict the public's access to woodland. Not something any of us would like to see happening, I am sure.

Remember the litter-bug campaigns of our childhood in the 1950s and 1960s when you could be fined £1 for dropping litter in Scottish streets? A simply enormous sum of money to a child. School teachers, parents, scout masters etc. made a great effort to teach us never to leave rubbish behind, but to pick it up and take it with us to the nearest bin. We were also taught to break spent matches in half and bury the end that had been lit, head down in the earth.

Regarding use or misuse of water - crops have to be watered. Flower-beds and lawns do not. Now I shall duck down behind the sofa - as I know you avid gardeners will not agree.

Nor will you agree when I say bath-tubs should be made illegal. No-one should even for a minute consider filling a bath tub with gallons of water that they use to wash themselves in and then pour down the drain! If you really cannot accustom yourselves to feeling and being clean by taking a short shower, turning the water off while you soap and shampoo yourself, then do at least use the bath water to wash floors or water the garden.

Another thing: why are modern washing machines pumping used, hot water straight down the drain? Remember the wash copper and the water being used to wash floors in, when the washing was done, or when the water in the copper was changed?

I am not trying to suggest that we all can or should lug buckets of water outside, but a pump could be fitted to bath drains or washing machines to pump the water into a resevoir from where it could be diverted either to washing floors, patios, cars, or flushing toilets.

Using clean drinking water to flush a toilet is not something the world can afford to keep on doing, is it?

Instead of just being frightened of forest fires and floods - both of which are frightening, let us start thinking how we can mimimise the risks.

The destruction that the fires causes is awful, it must be so frightening for people when so close to their homes and the poor wildlife that suffer terribly. How can some people think it's ok to leave BBQs and litter lying about when they are finished. Also the idiots that start them deliberately, what goes on in their stupid heads. Flip it makes me so angry!
I was out early this morning for my dog walk and the litter left down at the seafront was a disgrace. The beer bottles were everywhere, broken glass and they had actually thrown all the life saving rings into the harbour. I met a council worker and the poor guy had to stand while I had a rant.

It's awful. They can start anywhere. I was astounded to see a huge display of disposable barbecues at the entrance of a Lidl on Friday. I wrote an email as soon as I got home. A lot of supermarkets have withdrawn them from sale. They should be fined for continuing to sell them at this point in time when the risk of fire is so great.

I was in france in June when it was blistering hot our friends who have farms were all so very worried bout fires. We are surrounded by bushes n trees it really concerned me. This year here in UK we’ve experienced extremely hot weather. Maybe this could be the future I’m definitely not prepared for it as per those who live in hot countries with air conditioning. Which again is expensive to run and bills are high enough

Yes, there are plenty of idiots using BBQs but there are also plenty of idiot Ministers in government with a history of cutting fire services not to mention the NHS, ambulances, gas storage and failing to control water companies dumping sewage into rivers to keep up their profits.

I took my dog to the beach last night and a young couple had a fire in the dunes, looked like one of those bucket barbeques. I said open fires were banned during this heatwave and he said he had water to put it out. Whether he did or not is another matter.

I know they have beach wardens in certain areas, this area has become so popular we need them now. Shouldn't be up to old ladies like me to say things!

My house backs onto a field too and I have also been worried about fires; particularly after seeing people on TV who had lost everything, which prompted me to put a few things that I wouldn't want to be without into a rucksack in case of an emergency!

Some kids set fire to 50 hay bales in the field near me Fraserpradhan, new estate backs onto it. Still smells awful, but fire brigade tackled it very quickly. Farmer has been criticised for leaving them there, they weren't black plastic wrapped. Three boys were seen cycling off hurriedly.

grandtanteJE65

If hotter, drier summers are something we shall have to live with, then unfortunately the risk of water shortages and wild fires will increase.

Preventing this will of necessity mean that some of the things we have been accustomed to no longer will be necessary.

It is no skin of my nose if barbecues go out of fashion - I have no liking for food grilled over charcoal. To me it is a method of cooking that completely ruins good food, stinks the entire neighbourhood and takes longer than cooking indoors.

I appreciate that others hold a different opinion, which they are entitled to.

But barbecues may well be one of the things that need to be restricted or even completely banned.

Burning stuble was banned some years ago, and all forests have fire breaks, but it may be necessary to widen them. Ploughing up the edges of corn fields after harvest will not stop fires spreading, as fire can leap far greater distances than the edge of a cornfield.

If the general public cannot be educated to taking all rubbish, including glass bottles home with them, picking up cigarette ends and used matches if they smoke out doors and only lighting fires in specially designated places outdoors, governments may well have to restrict the public's access to woodland. Not something any of us would like to see happening, I am sure.

Remember the litter-bug campaigns of our childhood in the 1950s and 1960s when you could be fined £1 for dropping litter in Scottish streets? A simply enormous sum of money to a child. School teachers, parents, scout masters etc. made a great effort to teach us never to leave rubbish behind, but to pick it up and take it with us to the nearest bin. We were also taught to break spent matches in half and bury the end that had been lit, head down in the earth.

Regarding use or misuse of water - crops have to be watered. Flower-beds and lawns do not. Now I shall duck down behind the sofa - as I know you avid gardeners will not agree.

Nor will you agree when I say bath-tubs should be made illegal. No-one should even for a minute consider filling a bath tub with gallons of water that they use to wash themselves in and then pour down the drain! If you really cannot accustom yourselves to feeling and being clean by taking a short shower, turning the water off while you soap and shampoo yourself, then do at least use the bath water to wash floors or water the garden.

Another thing: why are modern washing machines pumping used, hot water straight down the drain? Remember the wash copper and the water being used to wash floors in, when the washing was done, or when the water in the copper was changed?

I am not trying to suggest that we all can or should lug buckets of water outside, but a pump could be fitted to bath drains or washing machines to pump the water into a resevoir from where it could be diverted either to washing floors, patios, cars, or flushing toilets.

Using clean drinking water to flush a toilet is not something the world can afford to keep on doing, is it?

Instead of just being frightened of forest fires and floods - both of which are frightening, let us start thinking how we can mimimise the risks.

I use as much water having a shower as having a bath. I know that because I kept the plug in one day when I had a shower. It might have been different before people had power showers fitted. And when you suffer from arthritis, as I do, a hot bath is very therapeutic. I do reuse the water, though, and have done ever since I had a water meter fitted. Also people need baths for young children. One of the joys of childhood, imo is playing with bath toys in the bath. Both my children and grandchildren have always loved bathtime. As for only watering crops and not flowerbeds what about the insect life (especially bees) and birds that our flower beds provide for. I do agree about barbecues, though. Never understood them myself. When I’m hungry I want to eat. Not wait ages for the barbecue to heat up and then burn everything. And, as a lousy cook, I’m quite capable of burning food without barbecuing it.Then again, I guess barbecues are social events and I’m not very sociable! I don’t think, as individuals there’s a great deal we can do to minimise the risk of fire and floods. It’s down to government to do more and spend more money. The current government cut back on firefighters I believe. I live in a flood area and recently drainage ditches have been maintained properly, but they weren’t for a while. Ditto the drains in the road. Flood plains shouldn’t be built on. I don’t know what the rules are about that now: they seem to change all the time. I’m sure that they recently said it was ok to build on flood plains again. My driveway allows water to drain through it but my neighbours drives, which were done after mine, don’t.