Can you smell it? I went out into the garden first thing and could smell burning. Turns out so can a lot of other people in Bath.
Avon and Somerset Fire Brigade say the smoke is from the Wiltshire fires, where, like in other parts of this drought-ridden country, areas of grassland are burning. However, according to the wind direction, the smoke could equally be coming from fires in south Wales.
Meanwhile, Waitrose in the city centre is the latest supermarket to feel the heat. Old freezer units cannot cope with the high temperatures. I am told they cut out at 32 Celsius. Yesterday Bath baked in 36 C.
What a waste of food. It has to be thrown away. Someone told me it will be next week before things get back to normal in this store. We saw the same thing happen at Morrisons recently.
Apparently the new M & S food hall is escaping, as their units are modern and can deal with the rise in temperatures.
Since publishing this piece l have heard from a follower of this blog who has done a bit of research herself on this issue.
Karren Harrowing points out that she is no expert, but she has sent me the following.
“Thank you as always for the blogs. Indeed, we woke up to strong smells of smoke this morning for the second time this week. Let’s hope for some fresher air soon – it must be awful for people with chronic lung conditions.
Regarding the issues with supermarket fridges, it is heartbreaking to think of all that wasted food – particularly as this is a completely avoidable loss.
The environmental impact of trying to cool spaces wider than needed is covered in this article here: https://foe.cymru/why-supermarkets-should-put-doors-their-fridges
It also states that: “Supermarkets are worried that putting doors on fridges will affect sales”.
The article goes on to say: “… in France supermarkets voluntarily signed up to make this change in 2012. Three-quarters of France’s 450 miles of fridges will have doors by this year” [article from 2020].
I have noticed the use of self-closing fridge doors (rather than the sliding sort) in France. You can browse easily and then open the door to select your chosen item, and the door closes.
There is an article here about a large French brand and the types of fridge/freezershttps://www.eurocryor.com/en/installations/e-leclercs-choices-commercial-refrigeration
I notice that Sainsbury’s in Bath has more fridges and freezers with doors on, and it is not short of customers. People have not stopped shopping in supermarkets in France.
I am sure that the newer technology used by M&S provides more efficient cooling than the older fridges in Waitrose. However, there seems to be a simple energy-saving logic to having a door on a fridge and freezer.”
Thank you for that Karen.
They should have doors on the refrigerators rather than the convenient open shelves. Saves energy as well
Food waste: Same with Ocado. My delivery guy got locked out of his van for an hour or so. By which time all the frozen and fresh food had to be disposed of. Not sure how the science works but I presume the vans are only temporary cold storage with time and temperature thresholds .All I got was a tin of herrings and some toilet rolls!
What the fire service actually said (or is saying now) was the smoke was from fires coming across the country. Certainly the smoke in our area, which was filling river valley, is coming from the west – ie South Wales. There is also a huge fire raging in Stourbridge with smoke sweeping down the country, and I think some fires in Gloucestershire. However, as we drove into Melksham today, the smoke was definitely from Westbury. Wherever it is coming from, it is horribly alarming.