{"id":103232,"date":"2026-08-14T05:07:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T05:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/103232\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T05:07:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T05:07:18","slug":"dozens-of-firefighters-tackle-south-london-grass-fire-sparked-by-barbecue-amid-andy-burnham-warning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/103232\/","title":{"rendered":"Dozens of firefighters tackle South London grass fire sparked by barbecue amid Andy Burnham warning"},"content":{"rendered":"

It comes just as Prime Minister Andy Burnham urged major retailers to halt the sale of disposable BBQs\"The<\/p>\n

The fire was started by the improper disposal of a disposable BBQ(Image: London Fire)<\/p>\n

The London Fire Brigade sent 60 firefighters in eight fire engines to extinguish a grass fire near Commonside East, Mitcham<\/a>, this afternoon (Thursday, August 13). Around one hectare of shrubs and grassland was alight. Crews used wildfire beaters, which consist of long handles with a flat piece of rubber at the end.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re used to beat the flames, which deprives them of oxygen and cools them down. The cause of the fire <\/a>is thought to be a disposable barbecue.<\/p>\n

It comes as Prime Minister Andy Burnham<\/a> has toyed with the idea of banning disposable barbecues during the summer months, having urged retailers to halt sales during hot periods.<\/p>\n

\"Prime<\/p>\n

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has floated the idea of banning disposable BBQs(Image: PA)<\/p>\n

He urged \u201call retailers big and small\u201d to pull the barbecues from their shelves as he warned extreme heat conditions \u201ccould be with us for some weeks yet\u201d.<\/p>\n

His comments came after chairing a meeting of the Government\u2019s emergency Cobra committee in response to the prolonged spell of exceptionally hot and dry weather<\/a>. England and Wales have already seen as many wildfires this year as in the whole of 2025.<\/p>\n

Some 1,017 wildfires have been recorded in England and Wales this year, according to data shared by the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC), the same as last year\u2019s record-breaking total.<\/p>\n

Most major UK supermarkets have suspended sales of disposable barbecues in recent weeks in line with voluntary guidance from the NFCC. Today was the UK\u2019s hottest day of the year so far with a provisional temperature of 38.1C recorded in Kew Gardens<\/a>, surpassing the previous high of 38C on June 28, the Met Office said.<\/p>\n

A London Fire Brigade<\/a> spokesperson said: “If you\u2019re planning to enjoy the warmer weather over the coming days either in a park or other open spaces, please don\u2019t take a disposable BBQ with you!<\/p>\n

“As this incident sadly proves they pose a significant fire risk – along with poorly disposed of cigarettes. The heat from a disposable BBQ can be retained for many hours, even after we think we have put out a barbecue safely. Smoking materials need to be discarded of properly and either dispose of your rubbish in the appropriate bins or take it home with you if none are available.”<\/p>\n

The Brigade was first called about the incident at 1.46pm, and mobilised crews from Mitcham, Norbury, Wimbledon and other surrounding fire stations to the scene. The fire was under control by 2.51pm.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don’t miss out on the biggest local stories. Sign up to our MySouthLondon newsletter HERE for all the latest daily news and more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It comes just as Prime Minister Andy Burnham urged major retailers to halt the sale of disposable BBQs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103233,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[26],"tags":[7786,4328,3569,27,4327,3882,31011],"class_list":["post-103232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-andy-burnham","tag-firefighters","tag-fires","tag-london","tag-london-fire-brigade","tag-mitcham","tag-wasted"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/117092132319503259","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}