London Fire Commissioner Andy Roe has repeated his call for a ban on disposable barbecues, saying that the move could save lives
(Picture: PA Archive)London’s chief fire officer has repeated his call for a ban on disposable barbecues in open spaces, saying the move could save lives.
Andy Roe, Commissioner of the London Fire Brigade (LFB), insisted he was not trying to “ruin people’s fun” but that a ban on the use of disposable barbecues in parks and other wide open spaces would prevent catastrophic damage.
Mr Roe previously said a ban was needed in July 2022 - and he repeated his call at a London Assembly meeting last week.
The topic was raised by Labour Assembly Member (AM) Leonie Cooper, who asked the Commissioner: “Do you think that the government should actually ban these disposable barbecues or is it just enough to have a public awareness campaign about how dangerous they are?
“I represent Merton and Wandsworth, and in Morden Hall Park, we had fires that [were] caused by I think five disposable barbecues [that] were recovered by the brigade.
Mr Roe replied: “I’d like to see a ban on disposable barbecues in open spaces during periods of hot weather, but it’s probably just easier to ban their use in open spaces.
“I haven’t got a desire to stop Londoners enjoying open spaces. I know I’m going to get accused of ruining people’s fun.
“But the reality was [that] we saw enormous damage and the potential for loss of life, caused by very serious fires that were started by disposable barbecues and their inappropriate use in public spaces.
“So I think it’s one of those occasions where, I’m afraid - without the wish to control anyone’s private life particularly, nor act in a constraining way - you’ve always in my position got to balance risk to the public against personal freedom.”
“I think this is one of those cases where doing something quite simple might actually solve a lot of problems and a lot of cost-damage, and potential loss of life.”
The Commissioner clarified that a ban would not be needed for their use in a private garden, because the scale of potential damage would be relatively contained.
Mr Roe was answering questions from the Assembly about challenges faced by the LFB. The point about barbecues came up as part of a wider discussion about the issue of climate change - with the Commissioner warning that temperature rises were happening at a faster rate than expected.
“I understand that the politics of climate change can be contentious. I see the noise, I hear it,” he told the Thursday meeting.
“The reality is, I’m driven by data, and what I see is a very significant uplift in the recorded number of incidents that relate to extreme weather.
“Now, I’m not a climate scientist, so I don’t know what’s driving that. All I know is that I’ve got a year-on-year effect that I can’t escape.
“So if I look at July 2021 - before the heatwave of 2022, that was the single largest recorded number of calls on a single afternoon for the LFB.
“That was 5,000-odd calls into flooding incidents, and we attended I think nearly 4,000, or just over 4,000.
“If I then turn to the heatwave on July 19 [2022] - when it peaked, that was the busiest day the LFB had faced since the Second World War.
“We had every single truck and firefighter deployed for an extended duration of time, and people working in very dangerous circumstances, particularly out in the farther east of London, where they were facing fire conditions that hadn’t been seen in the UK before - fire jumping a dual carriageway, burning three or four houses down within two minutes, firefighters being in the face of that firestorm.
“All I know is that the climate-related incidents we attend are increasing in volume and severity and therefore we’re looking at everything we need to do to adapt to that.”
Mr Roe said the LFB was purchasing new four-wheel drive vehicles to access the more rural areas on the edge of Greater London, and were also looking to acquire bowsers to provide remote water supplies.
