The Co-op have removed disposable barbecues from sale and say they won't put them back until the drought is over and it's rained again.
Southern Co-op, which has 12 stores in Bristol, and another five in the surrounding area, said it was removing the disposable barbecues from 199 stores across the south of England because of the increased fire risk at the moment.
The store's chief executive, Mark Smith, said they were taken the measure - also announced by Marks & Spencer last week - to 'protect the environment at a time of greatly increased risk of fire'.
Read more: Firefighters called after 'disposable barbecue' sparks grass blaze on the Downs
Firefighters across the country have warned about the dangers of disposable barbecues starting grass or wildfires - they were believed to be responsible for leaving a large patch of The Downs in Bristol a burnt mess over the weekend, and have been linked to a number of large-scale wildfires in Dorset, Cornwall, Devon and Somerset in recent days.
The Southern Co-op doesn't run all the Co-op supermarkets in Bristol, but does manage most of them - with the ones in North Street Bedminster, Church Road in St George, on the Wells Road in Totterdown, Two Mile Hill in Kingswood, Whiteladies Road in Clifton, in Ashley Down, School Road in Cadbury Heath and in The Square in Redcliffe, along with stores in Pill, Hanham, Cheswick Village, Portishead, Congresbury, Nailsea, Banwell, Clevedon, and Stoke Bishop.
Mr Smith said he hoped shoppers would understand the policy. "We have had a longstanding commitment to reduce our impact on the environment," he said. "We’ve taken this additional step, to completely remove disposable BBQs from sale in all our 199 managed stores, to play our part in addressing the impacts of the extraordinarily dry conditions across the south. We hope our members and customers will support this important move to protect our local wildlife and ecosystems," he added.
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