Disposable barbecues banned for posing 'significant risk to public' as Andy Burnham urges transition to 'more clean energy'

Britons have been temporarily banned from purchasing disposable barbeques.

Andy Burnham announced the ban today after arguing disposable barbeques pose a "significant risk to the public" during the current drought and heatwave conditions.

Speaking on the ban, which comes into force today, the Prime Minister said: "We ask retailers to implement the ban in full until further notice."

He urged the country to "face up" to the "changing climate" and to transition to "more clean energy".

Describing the country as a "tinderbox", Mr Burnham told reporters in Stourbridge: “Britain is a tinderbox right now, and please just have that in your mind.

“We’re going to go into the rest of the weekend… This is not over by any means. We’ve got 37 fires smouldering around the country, so it could be more. So please bear that in mind at all times.”

Mr Burnham added that his message to the public was not to light an open fire "of any kind", to dispose of cigarettes carefully amid a “combustible” situation and to take "the greatest of care" by not lighting "anything in an outdoor space right now".

The Prime Minister said: "You are taking risks with other people’s home, with other people’s lives, if you act recklessly."

He continued: "I’ve never seen anything like it. I mean, I dealt with wildfires in Greater Manchester, but nothing on this scale. I’ve never seen scenes like this in Britain, where you just see a whole house gutted, smouldering.

“And I met one of the families whose house had gone up in that in that way, so you can imagine how distressing that is for for them, and you feel for them and their kids, and not to go elsewhere.

“You know, it’s just unbelievably devastating for people in this in this position. So that’s why I’m here. I just wanted to show that, you know, we’re on the ground.

"We understand how difficult this is for everybody, and we will put in place the support to help people get back to where they should be as soon as possible."

An "emergency financial support" package is being drawn up for fire services battling the summer wildfires.

Plans have been drawn up to provide emergency financial support to fire services battling the spread of wildfires.

The Prime Minister will call in the military in a desperate bid to control the situation.

This strategy is regularly deployed in Europe and the US to douse flames and combat the spread of wildfires.

Speaking from Stourbridge in the West Midlands, Mr Burnham said: “Firstly, we have seen the military deploy 100 personnel, initially to the major incident in South Wales, and we’re very grateful to our colleagues in the Ministry of Defence for that. That support is critically needed."

He added: "We have a system of mutual aid in play at the moment, where fire and rescue services are supporting each other, but with so many incidents, it is crucial that the military support is there if fire and rescue services can’t do the same backup that they would normally be doing. So that is hugely appreciated.

"The second issue is around aerial firefighting capability, the planes that people might see in other countries. We have taken a decision to deploy nationally aerial firefighting support, so commissioned nationally."

He added that firefighting planes "would have made a difference” in tackling the Stourbridge blaze.

Asked about how the fires had started and how culpable any individuals were, he said: “So at this stage, the chief fire officer has just said to us that there’s no clear cause that can be identified at this moment in time.

“They can, I believe, identify a location where it began, which was in one of the surrounding fields. But at this stage, not a cause, and I don’t think it’s right for me to come and jump to any any conclusion there.

"But I just reiterate the message to the public that I gave a moment ago. Please, everybody, take the greatest of care. In fact, don’t light anything in an outdoor space right now."

Mr Burnham vowed that he will gather together firefighters for a summit at the end of summer to "make sure they are properly resourced going forwards make sure they are properly resourced going forwards."

He said: "I will convene at the end of the summer, a summit with fire and rescue services to make sure they are properly resourced going forwards. We’ve lost firefighters in recent years. I know it as a former mayor, from a very grassroots level, some of the pressures on our fire and rescue services.

"I can’t say today that we’ve done enough to fully resource them to deal with these type of incidents, and I want our firefighters to know that I understand how it seems from their point of view, and I’m going to convene that summit to make sure we get in place the right and support, including the aerial support, permanently if that is what they deem is needed.

“Obviously, there’s other adjustments that we need to make in relation to climate change. We might be in for a wet autumn and winter straight after this, because of El Nino and some of the issues there, which were reported to Cobra. So, after fire could come floods."

His comments came on a visit to Stourbridge to see the impact of a devastating blaze.

On Wednesday, Mr Burnham chaired an emergency Cobra committee meeting to coordinate the government's response to extreme heat.

The UK is currently experiencing its fifth widespread heatwave of the year.

England has received just 4mm of rain so far in August, or six per cent of the long-term average for the month, the Environment Agency said on Friday.

It follows the driest July on record for the country, when only 7mm of rain was measured, or 10 per cent of the average.

The ongoing dry weather means that reservoir storage for England now stands at 66 per cent, down from 69 per cent a week ago and nearly 14 percentage points below the long-term average for the time of year, the Environment Agency said.

Storage stood at 85 per cent at the end of June, but has fallen steadily in recent weeks.

Five reservoirs are currently classed as having “exceptionally low” levels: Clatworthy in Somerset (48 per cent full); Clywedog in Powys, which provides water for central and north-west England (56 per cent); the Dove group of reservoirs in Derbyshire (69 per cent); Hanningfield in Essex (56 per cent); and Wimbleball in Somerset (46 per cent).