Fire and rescue services in southeast England are urging residents not to report their neighbours for having BBQs, following a wave of such reports after the Government's emergency alert about wildfires.
The UK's mobile phone alert system was used last week to warn people against lighting anything which could spark a wildfire, including BBQs and garden incinerators. But fire and rescue services in Surrey and East Sussex said residents should not call 999 unless there is an emergency after receiving a high volume of reports of neighbours having BBQs, bonfires and campfires in their gardens.
Services respond to 'unprecedented' reports
A spokesperson for Surrey Fire and Rescue Service said: "We understand residents may be concerned, but we are unable to respond to reports of neighbours having BBQs, bonfires or campfires in their gardens unless there is an emergency." They added that the service supports the Government's message and advises against bonfires, fireworks, campfires or disposable BBQs in the dry conditions.
East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service group commander Simon Neill said it had received an "unprecedented" number of wildfire reports, but added that a garden blaze can quickly grow to be "a large fire, or even a wildfire". "Because everything around us is dried out, the impact of that small fire spreads so quickly," Mr Neill told the BBC. "Quicker than people would think."
Prime Minister urges public to take alert seriously
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has told members of the public to take the mobile phone alert "seriously" and said it was triggered at the request of firefighters. But fire services elsewhere in the country, including Gloucestershire in the southwest, have also thanked the public for their "vigilance" while stressing that 999 should only be called if there is "a genuine emergency or an immediate risk to life, property or the environment". South Wales Fire and Rescue Service also asked for 999 calls to only be made in the event of a "new emergency".
The alert was issued after nineteen homes were destroyed on Thursday in a wildfire in the West Midlands which spread across more than 500 acres in Stourbridge.
