Britain Says No More Disposable Barbecues as Wildfires Burn
The UK government has temporarily banned the sale of disposable barbecues across Great Britain and sent the military to help fight wildfires, starting 14 August 2026 (The Guardian). The prime minister asked shops and online sellers to stop selling the single-use grills right away. Government advice said that disposable barbecues cannot be considered safe given the current hot, dry weather.
The announcement came after the prime minister held his first Cobra meeting on the heatwave. Cobra is a special government meeting used during emergencies. Speaking from Stourbridge in the West Midlands, the prime minister spoke about the human cost: at least 19 people were taken to hospital after eight fires tore through homes there. He said not all of the 37 fires across Britain had been started by barbecues, but that it was "probable" some had. Government advice noted that single-use grills had caused several serious wildfires over the summer.
The national ban follows efforts already happening at the local level. On 12 August, Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, said he was thinking about making disposable barbecues illegal in his region because of wildfire risks during the dry weather (The Guardian). By 13 August, he was urging all shops, big and small, to stop selling the products to help prevent more fires that summer (Sky News).
The government is doing more than just banning sales. The prime minister said he plans to bring in firefighting planes, like those used in Europe and the US, to drop water on the fires from above. Burnham said emergency money was being prepared for fire services fighting the blazes. He also warned that the coming weekend would be difficult, and that the hot, dry conditions could last through September and into October. He added that late autumn could bring floods, because dry ground does not absorb water well.
The prime minister was criticised for not talking about the climate emergency after his Cobra meeting. At the same time, the UK government was deciding whether to allow more oil and gas drilling in the North Sea at sites called Jackdaw and Rosebank. The prime minister said he would take a "pragmatic" (practical) approach to North Sea drilling, saying the UK could not stop using oil and gas for some time.
The broader picture is one of tension. Banning disposable barbecues deals with an immediate fire risk, but the bigger question of what is driving these extreme conditions, the climate emergency, remains largely unaddressed. Burnham's warning about floods following drought shows how climate impacts can pile on top of each other, testing the country's systems long after the fires are out. The government's willingness to keep drilling for oil and gas, while sending the military to fight wildfires made worse by climate change, shows the difficult balancing act between keeping energy flowing and adapting to a warming planet.
