Disposal barbecues have been temporarily banned from sale over fears they pose a “significant risk to the public” as drought and heatwave conditions continue to grip the UK.

They have been the cause of “a number of serious wildfires across the country over the summer months”, the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (DBIST) has said.

It comes after a potential ban was first discussed at an emergency Cobra meeting on the government’s response to record temperatures earlier this week.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Andy Burnham says the country is like “a tinderbox” as fire crews in the West Midlands continue to battle multiple blazes.

Disposable barbecues “cannot be considered a safe product” in the current conditions and they “must not be made available for sale either in store or online at the current time” in Great Britain, advice published by DBIST said, external.

All retailers will be receiving guidance about the change, which will be kept under review, Burnham told the BBC.

Burnham also said some of the wildfires burning across the country will have been started by disposable barbecues.

Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live’s Matt Chorley, the prime minister said: “We’ve got 37 fires across England and Wales right now, four of them are major incidents.”

He added: “We’re going into a difficult weekend, please just think about the situation that we’re in.

“Britain is a tinderbox right now. Setting a fire in any outdoor setting of any kind is a risk to other people’s homes, it’s a risk to other people’s lives, don’t do it, please don’t do it.”

Many large retailers and supermarkets had already voluntarily stopped selling the devices under a framework agreed in 2023 between fire chiefs and the British Retail Consortium.

It said that retailers should suspend sales once an extreme heat event has been declared as imminent, or in response to “reasonable, evidence based” requests from local councils.

Burnham also said he planned to commission firefighting planes, like those used in Europe and the US, to combat the spread of wildfires.

The country has to “face up” to the “changing climate” and needs to transition to “more clean energy” he said.

He said plans were being drawn up for emergency financial support for fire services battling the spread of wildfires.

“We have a fire and rescue service across the country that isn’t properly set up to deal with these incidents,” he said.

“We don’t have the capability in the way that we should have to fight these fires.

“There’s thousands of firefighters out there today doing back-breaking work, in full kit, in the most difficult conditions”, he said.

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

As parts of the UK recorded the hottest day of the year on Thursday, residents fled their homes as fires spread through dry grass and tore through houses.

West Midlands Ambulance Service said it treated 54 casualties at eight different fires across the region. Nineteen people were taken to hospital for treatment.