Up to 300 people called emergency services with barbecue questions

Barbecue.Photo: Audun Braastad / NTB scanpix

Up to 300 people have called the emergency services number on Sunday to ask if it is allowed to grill outside or to report on someone else who was grilling. The fire department is tired.

 

– “We are on the verge of giving up here. People must not call the emergency numbers unnecessarily. It may be they are asking for themselves and not not dare say it,” says the officer in Oslo Fire and Rescue Service, Bjørn Tore Farstad to Dagsavisen.

There is now a complete ban on barbecues and bonfires in Oslo and many other places due to the hot temperatures in recent weeks, but the fire service asks people to call the emergency number only if it is a serious situation.

Between 200 and 300 people have called emergency service numbers on Sunday either to ask if they can grill or to tell about others who were.

Farstad thinks it may be that a lot of people either do not know that there is a ban on barbecuing, or they simply do not care. The fire department in Oslo has extinguished 25 grills at Huk on Bygdøy on Sunday, as well as several other beaches.

“I understand that people think it’s safe at the water’s edge, but we can not have people decide themselves what maybe a fire hazard. It’s crazy and fire spreads very fast right now,” Farstad says.

 

© NTB scanpix / #Norway Today