Fire Warning

This week we focus on an incredibly important topic for everyone enjoying the great outdoors: fire safety during the current hot and extremely dry conditions.

With campsites, farmland and countryside under significant pressure from the ongoing heatwave, we discuss why campers need to be extra cautious when using anything that involves a naked flame. Whether it's campfires, fire pits, stoves, BBQs or fireworks, now is the time to put safety first and think carefully before lighting anything outdoors.

Tim shares a personal account from close to home, where wildfires broke out yesterday. Tragically, several homes were destroyed and many acres of farmland were lost as the fires spread rapidly through the dry landscape. It's a stark reminder of just how quickly a small spark can become a major incident.

During the recording of the show, a national emergency alert sounded on mobile phones across the country, warning of the heightened fire risk and making it clear that fires, fireworks and BBQs were prohibited nationally. It was a dramatic moment that perfectly underlined the importance of the conversation Tim and Ade were having.

As always, it seems we've got our finger firmly on the pulse of the camping community, discussing the issue just as it became national news.

Wherever you're camping this week, please stay informed, follow local restrictions, and help protect our countryside, farms, wildlife and communities.

Stay safe and happy camping! 

DISCLAIMER: Casual Camping Podcast accepts no liability and does not officially recommend any products or endorse any techniques discussed in an individual podcast episode or shown on Casual Camping Podcast social media accounts. Individuals should make their own informed decision and risk assessment of any products or advice prior to any purchase or use

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to season four of Casual Camping Podcast, the home for the best camping discussion both in and out of the field. Here are your hosts, Tim and Aid.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Hello once again, you beautiful people out there in the casual camping podcast community. We love you one and all. And I am your favourite host, Tim. Come on, get that down your neck. Chew, chew.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

Chew. I was thinking of something to come back with, but I was like, I was going to give you white noise. I'm Aid. And uh we are slightly delayed this week through to technical issues and houses burning down near Tim. So our recording of the episode is coming a little bit later, but gives us a really good episode to uh talk about with that might involve some of that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

So yeah, yeah. Bit of a we um so it is Friday and we're recording this on a Friday. We don't normally do that because the episode normally hits the shelves, so to speak. Um top shelf, I might say. And listeners' wives. Um it's uh I don't know what you're talking about, Tim.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

Please explain those publications to us.

SPEAKER_01 1:38

They're anatomical publications. It's um yeah, we normally we normally have this and it goes out, um, it hits the shells really early on a Friday morning here in the UK. Um, but we'd left it late to record this week with one thing or another, and I got home to um, you know, those people in the UK will have seen it all over the national news rather oddly. Um Starbridge. Um and I live in a little village that is part of Stalbridge, and um we had one fire on one side and we literally had another fire on the other side of the village. Uh came home last night to lots of smoke in the streets and um people being a little bit worried and a little bit scared, and uh you know we've uh 19 houses have uh have gone up um in the area today.

SPEAKER_02 2:25

So essentially you were getting it uh from both ends, is what you're saying.

SPEAKER_01 2:30

That's another publication, yes.

SPEAKER_02 2:35

Up and down the street.

SPEAKER_01 2:40

Oh god, that's how it's gonna keep going into it.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

It's uh oh dear So you got your hose pipe out, did you? And uh started wetting the uh fences It's a gift that keeps giving Tim!

SPEAKER_01 3:00

Where's Julian Clary? There's more innuendo here than than a carry-on film. It's um oh dear, funny. It's uh yes, it's uh it was coming at me from both ends and uh and I I didn't like it up up up me. It's um it's uh no it was uh we're laughing now, but it was it was not great heading um you know oddly enough it'd been a really busy day yesterday and I uh I'd I'd been working all day. My mate who's in Italy uh messages me and goes, Your house alright, this uh with those fires. And uh and I went, What fires? And it's like oh quickly looked on the phone, and then the um we've got a a street WhatsApp group, and that suddenly was lighting up with I'm watering my fence, I'm doing this, and I'm I'm wetting the grass down, and it's like, oh god, okay, got home and it was lighting up.

SPEAKER_02 3:56

You could have used a bitter better phrase there, Tim. Uh it's um a worrying time, and uh obviously uh me and Tim use uh humour to uh underlie our uh worry and things, as you know, countless communities around the world are uh sort of having that kind of thing happen to them. So um we are all joking aside, it's a very worrying time. The planet is warmer, and yeah, it's unusual here for the UK, but it is now you know what we're seeing is what we've been seeing from California, America, Canada. Uh last year it was Australia, and yeah, it's really uh you know, France and Spain and you know parts of Germany, huge, huge parts of of Europe have um have had enormous fires.

SPEAKER_01 4:59

And our our fires here in the UK haven't been to that scale, but they're they're big enough to get out of control, they're big enough to put people in hospital, and they're big enough to destroy people's homes. And uh, a lot of people last night lost their homes. And um, and yes, we laugh and we joke about stuff, but I I can tell you I wasn't laughing and joking last night. It was um it was a scary old time, and um and what's what's unfortunate really is, and we don't know whether this has been the cause of it. The police have said that they uh they are um classing it as a criminal investigation, but um it's taken people to lose their houses and for people to be put in hospital for the government to finally ban um disposable barbecues in the UK, and um and that's kind of what the episode's gonna be about, isn't it? Is a bit of fire safety talking about some disposable barbecues, pros and cons. We've hated them for years and we've we've slagged them off and saying they're actually a useless piece of kit anyway, and they're hugely dangerous, and they've you know that people have you know put them inside the tents previously, and people have suddenly died. So it's great that they've now been banned, but it shouldn't really have taken you know 19 homes to have been burnt down for that to happen.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

Yeah, well, yeah, uh absolutely definitely, and it's a worrying time if you are going camping. So I had uh family members that went to Thai Park uh a couple of weeks ago, now that they're school summer holidays, absolutely loved the site uh and understand why we go back time after time, but there was another fire ban, and that was the only bit that they didn't really like because although it's warm here in the UK, when you buy the coast, it's a little bit cooler and they could have done with a fire overnight, but it was just so dry there that they they weren't allowed it. So this is the thing, you know, and I know we've talked about things like howl gas fires where they've got a um element within them, or you can get various things that have got sort of lava rocks in them and stuff where you're using there, but I don't think the UK campsites and camping community are necessarily up with those things uh to go, no, we've said no fires. You know, I think it's taken a while for them to be accepted over in the States where I think uh those like how and what's that other one I said?

SPEAKER_01 7:42

Ignite yes, yes, yes, well remembered.

SPEAKER_02 7:47

Well, you know, it's that they're they're on a wish list somewhere, but you know, I I messaged how they've just brought out a new version, version four of their uh fire this year, and I was like, hey, send us one in the UK, we'll review it because there's a market here begging for it, and uh we'd love to have some new kids. So if you guys are listening, and we know that you might be because we've got a lot of listeners over in the US, it looks a great bit of kids, and you know, for times like this, it'd be really interesting to see whether or not with a no-fire ban, somebody'd let you use one of those. Because how many times have we turned up with our amazing off-the-ground uh uh fire pits? And sites go, hey no, you're only allowed to use our fire pits because we know, and you know, it was like, well, I'm a professional. So yeah, I I wonder whether or not those would take a lot of getting used to.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

I think I think you'd have to do some explaining. I mean, certainly, you know, the howl system works by um it like superheats tubing inside it, doesn't it? Because you're not just getting heat from the flame, because that doesn't radiate enough enough heat off a gas off a gas flame. Um but it superheats tubing that's coiled up inside the device that then radiates a massive amount of heat. Uh so the whole device is giving you heat, but of course there's no embers coming off it, there's no, you know, you're not putting anything on there, there's no sparks or anything. So it's a really clean burn.

SPEAKER_03 9:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

So that it's uh as long as you what they say is as long as you clear the ground, you know, so there's no nothing underneath that will get hot and may then you know start to combust, clear the ground first and prepare, prepare the area, um, then um a lot of national parks in the US have have certified it and said that they've certified them, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:44

And I I think it'd take uh a little bit of that here in the UK. But hey guys at Howl, me me and Tim are at your service. If you want to send us one of those new version four uh fires that you've got, that'd be absolutely excellent. And and we'll do some of the market testing for you.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

I'll I'll play with the version one ed.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

Yeah, you know one that got damaged uh uh in transit that's been sent back.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

I'll play with that. Yeah, yeah. Do you know what they do one that hangs off the back of a like a pickup truck or a um you know a car or something? I'd happily bolt one on the back of my Jeep. I think it would look great.

SPEAKER_02 10:28

You talking about them top shelf magazines again? No, no, no, thank god. Um yes, Land Rover Connect with the terminology you use there hanging off the back off filth monkey Tim. Um so yeah, so that there is those things that I I just think, yeah, that'd be great. But I you know, I do think that you'd have a lot of explaining to do, and you know, basically what you what you don't want anybody if you've got a campsite is to start a fire and burn down your campsite, do you?

SPEAKER_01 11:16

So I I think it'll be a lot of closed minds and I mean we we went explaining, you know, listeners will know and people who've on our socials two weeks ago we went on a Monday night and we took the bio light and we had a fire. Um you know, we weren't the only ones there, but we had a fire there, and and it was obviously still quite as dry as it as it is now. But um I suppose uh one of the good, you know, great design elements of that biolight fire pit is that it's almost entirely um wrapped in a spark arrestor, isn't it? In a in mesh, and uh it really is.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

We were cooking on it and then we we had that we had good fuel, so there's another tip. You know, get some you know, if you if you if you're using sort of bits of pallet and whatever, that sparks like mad. Stop it, don't do that. Get some kiln dried wood, go even if you're just buying bags from the um supermarket or whatever, kiln dried wood, keep it in its plastic container so you know it's dry, you'll get less sparks off that kind of stuff. Yeah, if you're chopping up pallets and stuff, that is generally pine, it's resin filled, so you know that there's a lot more resin in pine than there is. It burns at a real hot heat and it burns really quick, but it does uh do a lot of sparks. So, you know, just make sure you're burning the right stuff.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

It's gonna make a lot of mess. I think I think campfires are banned for the rest of the summer, really, across the UK, um, certainly across across England and Wales. Um Scotland, you know, they they um they've had some terrible fires in the Cairngorms, you know, and uh and the Cairngorms have had a fire ban for a long time. Um now it's um I I th I think for the next few weeks, I mean I'm camping uh right across the bank holiday with some some mates, and um, you know, where we've been talking about who's cooking what and everything, and and I'd kind of toyed with, oh, I could do the Dutch oven, but it's like not at all. You know, it does it does completely change your change your cooking and everything. It changes what equipment you take in. You know, I um I'll take the kitchen station, I'll take the jetball genesis, and I'll I'll cook on that. And um, and and but we we won't have a fire, so it's you know, what do we what do we sit round? You know, we might have to sit good time tom in the middle and we just all stare at him.

SPEAKER_02 13:48

Yeah, so so here's a question then, Tim. That was funnier than that, Ed. I was I was thinking about my next question. I was like, where's my section? Just sorry.

SPEAKER_03 14:03

No, carry on, carry on, it's all right.

SPEAKER_02 14:05

Okay. So I I was thinking uh that what about those, you know, the fire logs that are come pressed sawdust, they don't give off sparkies, but it also did make me think that you know, even if you've got a gas fire that's going that's you know giving out a little bit of heat or you're watching the flames dance or whatever, it gives you that iridescent light of the glow that you're all sat round as you're having a beer and and stuff. It's certainly not for heat, it's but it's for camaraderie, I guess, and and the experience of being out there. Imagine if you've got a gas fire going, not everybody knows it. It's like you up in Scotland on the hills, and the police came going, hey, what are you doing? There's a fire going on up there, and you know, that'd be the same thing. Everybody on a campsite knows that there's no fires, but number pitch 22 down there's got a flipping fire going. You'd get reported all the time, wouldn't you?

SPEAKER_01 15:15

Yeah, you would, you would. I was I was thinking, you know, I could take the Mars fire because it's freestanding, it's all self-enclosed, it's glass on three sides, it's got a large chimney and a double spark arrest on it now because I've got the cowl on it as well that fits over it. And I'm thinking of contacting the um the campsite and just saying, you know, if I use a wood-burning stove with a spark arrestor, is that allowed? I'm pretty certain it's not going to be, but you know, I think, you know, because we've got listeners all over all over the planet, it's um it's you know, we've said it so many times. Speak to your local campsite, speak to the campsite that you're going, you know, get that relationship with them, have that, have that sort of one-to-one conversation, and just say, because you don't want to break the rules and you don't want to upset them and you don't want them to kick you off. You know, just have a conversation with them and just say, you know, at the moment the rules are saying this, I've got this piece of equipment. Is that going to be suitable? Because what I don't want to do, the Marsfire weighs quite a bit, and I know I'm car camping. Um, I don't really want to put it in the car if uh if I'm not going to be able to use it. So I um I am going to check with them if I can do something like that, because that might be then the way to go that we sit the Mars fire there. We don't need it for heat, but it does radiate heat.

SPEAKER_02 16:33

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:34

Super, super equitable.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

It's something to look at as well, isn't it? You know?

SPEAKER_01 16:37

But it's it's something to look at because you know, I don't want to look at at Richard's face. I don't want to look at Chaz's face. I don't I don't really want to look at Good Time Tom's face. I love you guys. I'm so looking forward to coming camping. I can't tell you how excited I am to come camping with with the three of you. We're gonna have such a such a scream and such a laugh, and we've got two nights in the field, so it's gonna be great, even without I tell you what, I want you to go to that pub that's there uh and go and get some of those shots.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

We're not going to they are good. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:15

Can't get in, can't get into Fire and Stars for love or money, love or money, or um nicely worded um emails to say, do you not know who we are?

SPEAKER_02 17:28

I heard the sent back and went, we heard it's not coming in full call.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

Sorry, sorry about the uh I get that a lot to be honest. Um I mean Richard nearly said it to me, to be honest.

SPEAKER_02 17:52

I know you're a he insinuated it a lot. I pick up the phone Tim. That's all. I've just nurtured that relationship.

SPEAKER_01 18:01

I've phoned him once, I've found him once.

SPEAKER_02 18:10

Yeah, so uh yeah, I'm missing out on that camping trip. And in in a lit in a strange kind of thing, it's kind of putting me off going camping if I can't have a fight, if I can't do what I want to do, you know, obviously on somebody else's land, but it does make me nervous uh uh about you know something going wrong. How many times uh there's a couple of sites I've been to and they go, no campfires, but you can have a barbecue and stuff, and I was like, uh I'll I'll take some calls, I'll take the biolite because you can cook on it and then throw in a little bit of wood on afterwards.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

Yeah, yeah, the biolite does let you do that because it's hard to tell. I um I'm just gonna be, you know, I mean it's two weeks away. Uh the long-range forecast is sure still showing the UK is having um, I think between now and then it's about a millimetre of rain, which means we're not getting any rain. Um it might, you know, you know, sod's law, it's gonna rain like mad right across the bank holiday weekend. But you know what? If it does, I'm actually gonna be really quite happy to go camping in the rain because you know we camped in Scotland in the rain, because there'd been no rain down here. We haven't had any significant rain since we came back from Scotland.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

Two months. Yeah, two months.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

We loved the rain up in Scotland. They were apologising to us at Van Gogh, and we were like, no, no, no, this is great. I love yeah I love putting the waterproofs on and just sitting in the rain, it was really lovely. So if it does chuck it down while we're away, I'm still going because I'm gonna be quite happy to sit in a field while it's raining, because the novel novelty of that at the moment. But if it's not raining, like you say, I'm gonna be really worried about you know, I'm not gonna take any risks. I'm just not gonna take any risks because you know, you don't want to be the guy that accidentally, you know, completely unintentionally, trying to do the right thing, but actually unintentionally sets fire to something, and these things get out of hand really, really quick. And you know, they result in people being hurt, they result in people losing livelihoods, you know, livestock being injured. I read today one of the one of the houses that have gone, they didn't manage to get the pets out of the house, the how the pets perished. You know, that's just like heartbreaking stuff, and you don't want to be the guy that's gonna be able to do it. Family members, family members, yeah. It's um so we we'll we will follow whatever rules are going. Uh I will consider the Mars fire and I'll and I might I might email them and and ask them about it, but um sometimes then you do poke the bear and they turn around and go, We've cancelled your your thing because you've asked a question that you shouldn't have asked. Um, do you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02 20:51

And and and that that's the thing, isn't it? That there there is this sometimes with certain sites, uh, you know, oh is it okay if you know five five of us uh just lads, you know, that single sex kind of thing, and you go like, oh, uh sorry, we've cancelled you. I had that uh over up in Massum.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

Um you know uh and it it was screw them, screw them. I hate that site. I hate them at that site, they don't want campers on it. I have no idea why they have a camping field there. It's somebody needs to open another camp site up at Massum because um that those people are they're they're awful people, they're really anti-campers, and I um I can't stand them.

SPEAKER_02 21:35

Yeah, I'm I'm I'm not camping there ever again. No there you go, people. That's me and Tim slagging off uh a place, but yeah, they they don't want us. They don't want us. They've had enough money from uh uh our groups when we've been there, but you know, they w they want caravanners, that's it.

SPEAKER_01 21:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:56

Cheers. What are you drinking tonight, Tim?

unknown 21:59

I am

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Um San Miguel. I'm on the beer. I'm on the pop. I'm on San Miguel. I'm eating dry tortilla chips. And downstairs there are some uh some burgers and chips cooking.

SPEAKER_02 22:13

Wow. I um I I know I've talked to you about it before, but I'm I'm gonna spend a bit of time here and just say that so I'm a bit of a lagalout. You're you're a connoisseur of ales and findings, whatever temperature you drink them at, you know. Whereas I I you know I I do like a nice sort of foster's Budweiser, things like that. But here in the UK they've started adding like taking out like the normal brew brewing process, so there's uh other things in. So I've had to up my game in the quality of the beer that I drink so that I don't have glucose syrup or something, or that they've started putting in stuff uh that is brewed here in the UK. So I've uh I've gone for a more German kind of uh and it might actually be uh Czech, uh Budweiser Budvar, uh, which is brewed with just four ingredients. Cool. Um so yeah, uh I've I've stopped doing the other stuff because I was just it's bothering me, and they're saying it's changing people's yeah, it's um super addictive, super addictive stuff as well.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

So it's um yeah, yeah, it's the it's part of the shrinkation, isn't it? It's um you know, and and they're trying to make the same money but with a a product that isn't the same.

SPEAKER_02 23:40

So cheers, good good health. Good health, it's stuff that is brewed here in the UK, uh, because we don't have laws. Like over in Germany, they've got strict laws that you can't alter how things are brewed. So yeah, I'm starting to uh really pay attention to see what's in there.

SPEAKER_01 23:58

Interesting, interesting.

SPEAKER_02 24:00

So yeah, I'm not no, um it feels like uh I'm I'm less loutish and uh you know being a bit more sophisticated.

SPEAKER_01 24:10

Sophisticated in your lager drinking.

SPEAKER_02 24:14

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

Good for you, good for you.

SPEAKER_02 24:16

Well, uh you know, I think I think so. Um but you know, it's even with some of the the pale ale and stuff, Doombar, that has it in it. That was that that was my gateway ale drinking and that's been bought up by somebody, and that's got that stuff in it, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

You did well there, because most people's gateway, uh you know, to to progress into adult drinks is uh is to go from lager to neck oil. But um anyone who actually does drink proper proper ales, you know, neck oil is just like it's an IPA, it's an IPA though, isn't it? It's like drinking flipping uh it's not even IPA, it's it's it's you know, it's just watered down, you know, it's lager cold and ale, but it's just a lager, really. It's um I do hate it when I go to a bar and they and all they've got is neck oil, it's like a couple of times I have actually just walked out because it was just why am I drinking? I don't want to drink that filthy muck, it's just I like something that's actually got some flavour to it.

SPEAKER_02 25:22

Well, so we've obviously digressed from fires to uh what we drinking, which does actually link up to being around a fire. But if you have an opinion that uh differs from me and Tim, and you know, you we don't want to offend anybody, but you can get to us on our socials. So we're on Facebook, we are on Instagram, messages, we have various sort of chats going on, and you know, we always we've got some new listeners, we've got some new joiners to those groups. Welcome one and oil. Oil, one and all, and uh you know, take part and uh challenge us if uh you think that we have uh said anything wrong because hey, we're we're still learning. Every day's a learning day, Tim.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

It is, it is, it is apart from neck oil. I was right about that. It's crap. Don't drink it, don't touch it. Get a proper drink. If you're drinking that, you need to you need to sort yourself.

SPEAKER_02 26:26

Might as well be cider. Might as well be cider.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

Might as well be alcohol pot. I mean, go get yourself a Moscow mule.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

Hey Tim, I I like a Moscow mule. Gooch. Hooch that um, yeah, so so that I I think let's have a little bit of a recap there. So if you go in, check the local uh rules. Yeah, check whether or not you can have a fire or a barbecue. Not one of the single-use ones, but you know, you'll still be able to maybe cook. But I think it it then questions if you're going and you know what you would normally do, you're not able to do. So think about the food that you're gonna be cooking. Yeah. Think about what you're what you need to take. Do you need more gas? Are you you know that those are the things really? You can't just do it as you'd normally do it.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

I was listening to Capital FM this morning. Well, it's probably just called Capital now, because I'm old so I still think of FM. But they um they were they did a barbecue, Jordan North did a barbecue, and uh, and it was all gas, and he um he'd taken two of the large bottles of gas and both of them were half empty because he just thought they always have loads in. And uh and his celebrity barbecue, they uh nobody ate the burgers because nobody trusted them because they weren't actually cooked. It's um so check your gas, check your gas, have you got full bottles of gas? It's um because you are gonna have to cook on things in a different way. We would normally do a barbecue over, you know, we'd we'd light a wood burner, maybe put some coals on it, and we'd um we'd put the grills on top and we'd cook on there. You do have to start thinking about cooking in a different way, and how are you gonna do that? Um, you know, a lot of the bushcraft guys out there, it's all open fire stuff, and I do wonder how that community's kind of getting on with all of this, really, because they're they're out there in the woods. Oh my god. Um, is that on your phone as well?

SPEAKER_02 28:42

That's on my phone, yeah. Severe uh alert has just come through. It's Friday, it's 7.01, and there is a very high risk of wild fires nationally. Residents, landowners, and visitors should not undertake any activity that could start a fire, including disposable barbecues, fire pits, garden incinerators, or fireworks. We're ahead of the curve again, Tim. Oh my god. This is going out after we've had that, but we are ahead of the curve.

SPEAKER_01 29:11

Yeah, it's happening as as uh yeah, so that's the national alert system, national warning system that we've only had in the UK for about six months. They've only tested it once, and uh and yeah, bloody hell. That is um um I have to say, and it says fireworks on there, I didn't get a lot of sleep last night for obvious reasons, you know, everywhere still smelled of smoke, and I kept waking up every every um probably hour. 2 a.m. I was woken up to some idiots actually.

SPEAKER_02 29:38

You mean in them clubs again that still allowed smoking? No, you mean to Club Kit Kat.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

Oh Berlin. Berlin. The Kit Kat Club, leaving that at 6am. Gosh, then then what day is head? No, I was woking up at 2am with some idiots lighting fireworks somewhere. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 30:07

Some idiots lighting fireworks, firecrackers were going off, and on two sides of me there are fields, and um, and it and in one of those fields somebody was lighting firecrackers. So there's um a there's just idiots out there, and and obviously last night we were the centre of attention for for uh national news, you know. We had airplanes, helicopters, loads of stuff going round all night long, loads of fire engines. We've had the Prime Minister here today walking round, you know. There's some idiots, aren't there, who like that attention, so they they like to do really stupid things, but um, you know, what we'd say is don't be the stupid person. So um, so yeah, we are now in a na a proper full national alert, no fires, no campfires, no no barbecues, absolutely nothing. We're a serious high risk of wildfires that um uh you know don't don't be the idiot, basically. Don't be the idiot.

SPEAKER_02 31:08

Yeah, and and the thing is as well, what what we've seen on the news over the last few years is that by the time a fire gets going, it's not necessarily sparks, it's the adjacency to a hot heat. So things just combust. Yeah, if they're so dry. They just do. And I I think that's that's the thing. It it's it might not be sparks, it might not be, but once that you know, it might be a spark that gets it going. But once you've got a tree on fire that's full of resin and dry as anything, yeah, anything anything that's within sort of 20-30 feet of that just gonna go up because of the amount of heat that's coming off that.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

Yeah. And last night, you know, the wind actually really picked up, which was my real worry. Because we're a number of roads between us and and where the fires were and the houses that were on fire. Um, but the wind was coming directly from where the fire, where the main fire was. Uh we did have one on the other side, it was much smaller, but I worried about that slightly less because the wind was blowing that one away. But I thought, and my other half said, Well, it's not going to come through all of that. I said, Well, no, it's unlikely to do that. But I said, sparks from there can travel quite far, embers can travel really quite far on a strong wind and land in a tree, and any of the trees around us are just completely, completely dry. I mean, we're losing leaves off the trees in the garden because they're they're so dry. It's um that was my real worry is that actually it could it could move very quickly once the wind picks up. It's um yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:51

And that's it, you know. Obviously, uh close to you have experienced that. People that we've seen on the news in various countries um experience that and you know you you don't want to be the cause of it, or no, no, have that happen.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

So you know if you are sorry, gone.

SPEAKER_02 33:14

No, well that's certainly here in the UK that national warning that has come through to all funds. I doubt very much there'd be a camp uh site uh going at the minute that is uh gonna let anybody have fires.

SPEAKER_01 33:30

No, not at all. Not at all. And if you're out there camping already, you know, put that stuff away. They've probably already told you not not to use it. Don't take it if you're if you're planning a camping trip, you know, plan it in a different way, cook your food in a different way, plan different food, you know, and that might include you know eating down the pub, because then you're supporting our local business, you know, it's um it's about thinking about doing stuff in a different way, isn't it? Just to make sure that every everybody is safe.

SPEAKER_02 34:01

Um and and and so it it it does state in this uh undertaking any activity that could start a fight, including disposable barbecues. So I think probably you know other barbecues might be available might still, but also you've then got to think, what do I do with that? Because that keeps uh a lot of heat in it. Yeah, you know, if you've got those briquettes, some of those hexagonal kind of uh um briquettes, they they last for hours upon hours and have a really good heat. So yeah, just just be very careful.

SPEAKER_01 34:40

It's where it's where you dispose of things as well, isn't it? So if you know, even if you've you know you've taken a gas burner, you know, a twin gas burner or something like that, I'll take the jet boil. The jet bowl's bloody hot, you know. The bottom of a pan gets bloody hot. If you're taking a little hiking stove and balancing a pan on top of it to boil some water, where are you putting that pan down? Because it is gonna singe the ground, and that's enough to set fire to stuff. And and just think about those little details. Oh I'm using gas and I've I've got this, so I'm gonna be alright. You know, you can still be an idiot, you know, you can still set fire to a campsite by just putting a pan on the ground. It's um it'll burn things, it'll it'll set fire to stuff.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

I uh I went camping years ago. This is years, you know. I was still in my twenties. We're just in a forest.

SPEAKER_01 35:32

Is that before the war?

SPEAKER_02 35:33

Yeah. And uh we're on the forest floor with what we thought had scraped down to um um dirt. Uh and we had a lovely fire just on the ground. Uh and in the morning there was burn marks that kind of spiraled out from and had gone quite far, and we'd not gone down to dirt, we'd just scraped out a little bit, and there was just all this stuff that had been burning away.

SPEAKER_01 36:05

So you know and um and tree roots do that as well.

SPEAKER_02 36:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:11

You know, in real dry, dry periods like we've got now, tree roots will will be like a fuse, they'll be like a fire fuse to carry carry a fire along. So um it's just not worth it at the moment. It's just not worth it if you're in these areas where they're saying, you know, we haven't had a full ban until literally two minutes ago, um, which we are now in a full in a full national ban. Um so it does change the the the uh change the advice services slightly so it's absolutely don't do anything. But even if you're in an area where it is potentially ambiguous and you can talk to that campsite, you really have to think very carefully about what you're doing. Because as I say, you don't want to be the idiot that sets something off.

SPEAKER_02 36:56

No. Uh so yeah, I mean completely, you know, think about the food that you're taking when you go. Think about you know, you were saying about burgers, like uh beef, beef burgers, they're okay, a little bit sort of rare, you know. If anything, beef is alright, rare. Well, it is that there's less sort of stuff in that, but you know, pork sausages, you can't eat them underdone.

SPEAKER_01 37:22

No, no, we're certainly not advocating undercooking food. Um absolutely not. It's uh you know, yeah, your gas binners are the way to go, but just then be be mindful that that isn't a foolproof system, you know. You still need to put those pans and things down somewhere, you know. In two weeks' time, if we still had no rain, I'll take my kitchen station, I'll take my jet boil that's got a full metal top to it that I can move pans across. It's very well contained, there's nothing comes off that, you know, it's nice, clean, you know, it burns super clean, does that um jet ball genesis? I um I bloody love it. I can't wait to get it out in the field again. I haven't decided what I'm cooking yet. Um I've said I'll do the first night meal and um and I but I'll I'll figure something out what I'm gonna cook. But um it it's a it's a great piece of kit. I um quite you know I'm just gonna pivot to some other piece of kit, and if you don't have an equally great piece of kit, if you've just got a fire pit, well you need to get yourself a jet ball genesis, don't you? You need to go shopping.

SPEAKER_02 38:32

Uh and I I have to say, I've just got myself a jet boil genesis, Tim.

SPEAKER_01 38:38

I know, I know it's um it's beautiful, isn't it? It's really beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 38:43

D do you know uh how swanky we'd look if you and I were taking care of dinner, uh going camping together, and we got out two jet boil genes. It's like Michelin starred chefing on on the campsite.

SPEAKER_01 38:59

Absolutely, absolutely. We'd we put Tom of uh off the beaten pot to shame, really. He'd just pack up and go home. He'd go, two jetball genesis is I mean what I mean what what is the collective noun for jet ball genesis?

SPEAKER_02 39:17

I know everybody's uh probably saying something that we can't repeat now. But that's just jealousy, Tim. Don't let them get, did you?

SPEAKER_01 39:28

They they just wish that we they were us.

SPEAKER_02 39:34

Uh well, you know, so Tim. I think all that, you know, we're all pretty worried. We all know that we need to take care, and you know, that that's it. So let's go with uh a mediocre five-star review. And we've had one before from Connor, but he sent us an excellent picture this week that uh was him having a beer sat by a pool over in Cyprus, and he said, What a better place to catch up on the last few weeks episodes than uh with a beer and a sun and the sun in Cyprus. So cheers, Connor. We really appreciate the sharing of that, and uh hope you're having a great time.

SPEAKER_01 40:18

So I I I you know I think I said something about it on um on his post, was just like, you know, I still find it amazing that people people listen. This you know, Connor. We've never met Connor. He's uh he's some guy out there on his holiday sitting next to a pool listening to us talk. I mean, um clearly he's got a mental health problem.

SPEAKER_02 40:42

Yeah, I'm just looking at that. That beer looks cloudy, Tim. Oh, it might be a frosted glass.

SPEAKER_01 40:50

It's probably a urine sample.

SPEAKER_02 40:59

Yeah, well, you know, uh cheers, thank you so much. I'm raising a glass. Uh I am doing the same, doing the same.

SPEAKER_01 41:08

You're an earth you're you're you're raising a primus pot.

SPEAKER_02 41:12

Uh I am from uh uh Richard gave me this. It's uh one of my favorite drinking things.

SPEAKER_03 41:19

Oh, Richard, favorite Richard, favorite, favorite host.

SPEAKER_01 41:24

Yeah. Whatever, whatever. It's coming camping with me. Oh dear. Right, shall we go for a minute mindfulness? That's the only thing we can do.

SPEAKER_00 41:44

Welcome to the casual camping minute mindfulness. Let the sounds of nature take you back to the camping field.

SPEAKER_01 42:54

Is it right to put a campfire in that, or is it wrong to put a campfire in that?

SPEAKER_02 42:58

I was just thinking the same. I was gonna come back with uh Tim, that's a bit mean to put a campfire in there. Well, I think we do it and go for all you that were missing that, there's a campfire.

SPEAKER_01 43:14

I'm not gonna edit this bit out, Ed. I'm just gonna keep it on because it's funny.

SPEAKER_02 43:21

It just shows it was the one that was going through my mind, yeah, was just like I was gonna come back and go, Tim, that was a bit mean putting a campfire in there.

SPEAKER_01 43:36

That's awesome, awesome great minds think alike, and us two fools never differ.

SPEAKER_02 43:44

Never change, that's the thing. Yeah, that's funny. That is funny. Okay, well, you know, that that was good that we didn't have to uh do that, so okay.

SPEAKER_01 43:55

So um, so yeah, I suppose uh last thing to say is just thank you very much for listening, everybody. Um stay safe out there wherever you are in the country because it's very hot in a lot of places, um, apart from South America where it obviously it's colder. Um but um at South Southern Hemisphere. Oh man, it's not here that get the hemispheres wrong. I'm I'm the I'm the smart one. Um gosh.

SPEAKER_02 44:27

I I was like, just there, I'm sure I've seen snow in the you know, take care everybody wherever you are.

SPEAKER_01 44:38

Have you know, find us on our socials, on Instagram, on Facebook. We've got a great Facebook group, we're over on YouTube. Um, come and talk to us. Uh we are always desperate for people to talk to us.

SPEAKER_02 44:53

Yes, desperate is a good word for it. Desperate casual camping podcast.

SPEAKER_01 45:00

Desperation's what you need. I've been aide. I've been tin.