General Chat

Not long ago there was a post about the dangers of hot water in hosepipes, which I admit is not something that would have occurred to me.

In this week's local paper is the story of a 7-year old, visiting a beach on Loch Lomond and skimming pebbles across the water. He saw a pile of lovely black ones, just the right shape and scooped up a handful. Tragically, they were red-hot bar-b-q embers and he was badly burnt. His mother put his hands in cold water and then he was wrapped in cling film with ice and driven to hospital. They put his hands in more cold water, but he was still in agony. They wanted to give him some morphine for the pain, but he couldn't keep still. Eventually it took four people to hold him down while they sedated him.

In the operating theatre all the skin was removed from his hands. They will apparently recover, but he will be scarred for life.

To quote his mother - "How can people be so irresponsible? It doesn't take long to pour water on the embers to cool them down" and in this case the whole of Loch Lomond was a few yards away!!

How incredibly sad. As you say, it would have been easy enough to tip water over the hot coals :-0

and who the h*** would think of dumping burnt charcoal on a BEACH??????


You just do NOT do that!

probably didn't think...!!.


probably one of the "takeaway" brigade...open the car window and chuck it out!!

energy drinks..got the energy to raise the bottle to their lips, but not enough energy to open a wheelie bin lid and drop the bottle in there!!

Aw poor wee lad..that's awful.

How irresponsible! if you are in a public place such as a beach, then surely you must be extra careful. Would you leave coals burning in your own back garden? I think not. You would put water on them to make sure they were out before going indoors wouldn't you?


I don't want to spoil anyones enjoyment but a lot of fires start like this when people have BBQS on grass land and then the fire spreads and gets out of hand. Doesn't take much especially just now with all this hot dry weather and little rain. Maybe BBQS shouldn't be allowed in certain high risk areas?

Hope the wee boy makes a good recovery , bless him

Florence in the hebrides

Open fires are the first thing to be banned here when temperatures reach certain temperatures and there has been no rain for a few days ........... ie, reaching drought conditions.

That usually also included BBQs, including portable propane ones. Gas or propane BBQs in gardens in cities are usually exempt.

Maybe the UK should start tjinking along these lines if you are going to have these hot dry summers.

I did read that somewhere that people gather in parties to watch (I think) Henley Regatta they have banned the usual barbecues

Sylvia,

Same here in Western Oz except that when there is a total fire ban in place you aren't even allowed to use charcoal BBQs, only bottled gas. That applies to town sites. Outside town sites no appliances whatsoever.

A couple of years ago one chap in the hills area outside Perth used an angle-grinder during one such ban. A spark caused a major bushfire which destroyed several homes. He spent time in prison for it and couldn't move back into the area on his release for fear of retribution from his neighbours

Allan ...............

we have similar bans on charcoal bbqs here in smaller towns and villages where the forest/town interface is very small. It's different here in the big city ........ we haven't yet had a total BBQ ban

I do remember there being a total ban on BBQs in Melbourne when we were living there, and it was just "known" to everyone that the ban took effect when the temperature was high and you could smell eucalyptus oil.

Not much use if you were a visitor, and didn't know the unannounced rules!! Luckily, we didn't have a BBQ, so we didn't break the law, but we did wonder why our neighbours in the apartment block (all mainly university students or staff) suddenly stopped BBQ'ing They soon enlightened us when we asked.


Poor guy ................ we had someone in summer 2003 who had a cigarette while in his garden, dropped it on a path, he thought he'd stomped it out but unfortunately not because he had not buried it, and a huge fire ensued. Burnt down the local saw mill (only industry) in his village, over 70 homes, and spread over many miles.

He realised it was him, and apologised immediately, but was charged and given a $3,000 fine for carelessly discarding a cigarette ............... his neighbours raised the money to pay the fine and welcomed him back to lvie in the village.

The overwhelming feeling was that he had not done it deliberately, was extremely sorry, and deserved forgiving :-0

You can still see the huge damage done over the hillside and into the next valley as trees are very slow to re-seed and grow here.


Maybe a bit hard to see, but the photo was taken in December 2016. The hillside is across a river, and was totally forested before the fire

How awful, Sylvia. How forgiving of those living around him.

Lizx