Pensioners burn books for warmth
Hard-up pensioners have resorted to buying books from charity shops and burning them to keep warm.
Calvin's works are very dry, so they burn well.
Pensioners are burning books to keep warm
Volunteers have reported that ‘a large number’ of elderly customers are snapping up hardbacks as cheap fuel for their fires and stoves.
Temperatures this week are forecast to plummet as low as -13ºC in the Scottish Highlands, with the mercury falling to -6ºC in London, -5ºC in Birmingham and -7ºC in Manchester as one of the coldest winters in years continues to bite.
Workers at one charity shop in Swansea, in south Wales, described how the most vulnerable shoppers were seeking out thick books such as encyclopaedias for a few pence because they were cheaper than coal.
One assistant said: ‘Book burning seems terribly wrong but we have to get rid of unsold stock for pennies and some of the pensioners say the books make ideal slow-burning fuel for fires and stoves.
A lot of them buy up large hardback volumes so they can stick them in the fire to last all night.’
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GJ - Northwest Arkansas is having a similar cold wave. The heat pumps do not work below 30 degrees. This morning I went over to the fridge and stood by the open door to warm up.
Mrs. Ichabod said, "While you're up, put the butter in the freezer to warm it up. It just tore up the bread somethun awful yesterday.
Later she made lunch on the stove, starting a fire four times.
I said, "I had trouble getting the fireplace going yesterday. Why don't you handle the fireplace from now on, and I will cook."
