Fire service issues warning after wave of reports about neighbour BBQs

Labour's emergency alert about wildfires has sparked a wave of people reporting their neighbours for having BBQs..

14:39, Tue, Aug 18, 2026 Updated: 14:42, Tue, Aug 18, 2026

Burgers and Skewers Cooking on Charcoal Grill

Brits have become next-door vigilantes after an emergency alert last week (Image: Getty)

People in southeast England have been urged not to report their neighbours for having BBQs following the Government's alert about wildfires. The UK's mobile phone alert system was used last week to warn people against lighting anything which could spark a wildfire, including BBQs and garden incinerators.

But fire and rescue services in Surrey and East Sussex said residents shouldn't call 999 unless there is an emergency after receiving a high volume of reports of neighbours having BBQs, bonfires and campfires in their gardens.

"We understand residents may be concerned, but we are unable to respond to reports of neighbours having BBQs, bonfires or campfires in their gardens unless there is an emergency," a spokesperson for Surrey Fire and Rescue Service said.

World on fire, wildfires rip through trees and moorland in UK as Climate change leads to tinder dry vegetation during the summer months, and winds blo

Recent hot and dry weather has made the UK more vulnerable to wildfires (Image: Getty)

They added that the service supports the Government's message and advises against bonfires, fireworks, campfires or disposable BBQs in the dry conditions.

East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service group commander Simon Neill also said it had received an "unprecedented" number of wildfire reports, but added that a garden blaze can quickly grow to be "a large fire, or even a wildfire".

"Because everything around us is dried out, the impact of that small fire spreads so quickly," Mr Neill told the BBC. "Quicker than people would think."

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has told members of the public to take the mobile phone alert "seriously" and said it was triggered at the request of firefighters.

But fire services elsewhere in the country, including Gloucestershire in the southwest, have also thanked the public for their "vigilance" while stressing that 999 should only be called if there is "a genuine emergency or an immediate risk to life, property or the environment".

South Wales Fire and Rescue Service also asked for 999 calls to only be made in the event of a "new emergency".

The alert was issued after nineteen homes were destroyed on Thursday in a wildfire in the West Midlands which spread across more than 500 acres in Stourbridge.