I was surprised to see the London Fire Brigade chief begging people to not start barbecues and to be careful with their behaviour. What on earth goes on in the COBRA meetings to address the wholly foreseen extreme weather? Here in Finland - not known as a hot country! - if there is a weather warning re danger of wild fires, it is actually illegal to set up a bonfire and despite all the vast open spaces you should only set up barbecues in officially designated areas (of course, you can do what you like on your own land). This happened at Midsummer this year (a national holiday and traditional to have a bonfire) which was a bummer, as usually midsummer weather is disappointing but this year it was glorious. So, all the government needs to do is bring in a law that stops people needlessly aggravating the situation of dry hot fields and woods catching fire by lighting barbecues, should it issue an 'extreme weather' warning which could aggravate the propensity of dried out shrubbery to catch fire and spread rapidly. It is rather too late when the LFB is already tackling ten major fires, and what lout is going to listen to some guy on telly, anyway.
