Hello Everyone,
I attended a wedding recently and after the ceremony they released tent or thirty floating camels. They are like little paper hot air balloons with a burning candle providing the heat to send them aloft. While they were quite beautiful they seem incredibly dangerous to me. They floated for miles and it seems that if they came down on top of a house they could start a fire. How are these even legal? Had there been any bad occurrences because of them?
Tell me more of these floating camel. 
Seriously tho, I agree those floating fire bombs seem like a very dangerous thing to float over a neighborhood or anywhere other than a huge parking lot.
I think they generally have run out of “fuel” when they descent. Except if they hit a house while ascenting.
But sometimes the burning goo falls off for no reason and that is really dangerous. If it happens during launch you can get it to your eyes. Or it can drop over some flammable material.
But they sure are beautiful and fascinating nevertheless!
They pump up the camels with a gaseous form of upsidaisium and away they go!
When I read the OP I thought it must be an indoor thing. Outdoors? :eek: What could possibly go wrong?
In Massachusetts, they are classified as illegal fireworks. They talk about them at Old Sturbridge Village, but don’t set them aloft.
Maybe the Camel is a cigarette.
Sky lanterns, Chinese lanterns and fire lanterns are banned in lots of places. One caused a big fire in England a few years ago.
I was in Hawaii over Christmas last year and people were launching them. The wind was blowing them out to sea. They were really beautiful. About 10 years ago some one launched a few from Mission Bay in San Diego and the wind blew them over my house. Again they were pretty but you cant help but worry about the fire danger. Even if they don’t come down on fire you still have some big wire framed thing falling from the sky. I can see it causing an accident if you are driving along and all of a sudden a 3 foot tall thing lands in traffic.
I have to admit this has got the “eye of a needle” thing beat.
We launched one from my house on the 4th of July. About the time it was up 100’ or so and drifting away I thought it hadn’t been a good idea. We’ll not do it next year.
They’re big in Thailand. They were essentially a northern-Thai tradition that spread elsewhere throughout the country, particularly after the 2004 tsunami, in the wake of which they released a bunch down on the peninsula, one for each person killed. Those ones all went out over the ocean, but every year, particularly in the North, there are building fires resulting from them. They’re also an aviation hazard.
So they released either a tent or thirty floating camels?
They must have released the thirty camels from the tent.
Sorry for my old eyes, big thumbs and auto correct. At least it provides some laughs
I’m envisioning farmer John explaining how this burning camel landed on his haybarn …
I burning your camel!
Are you sure? I can (and have) bought them at local (Mass.) hardware stores. My folks have a house on a lake and we’ve floated a few off over the lake.
In Ohio, they’re “flame effects” rather than fireworks, and they’re illegal to use without a permit, but they’re freely sold with no restrictions (unlike fireworks, which can only be sold to people who sign a promise not to use them in Ohio).
It’s only a matter of time before the unthinkable happens and one of these collides with… er, a drone.
We use to make them with laundry bags, drinking straws and birthday candles. One night, one of them went up about 30 feet, then promptly descended on the neighbors roof. I still bear a scar on my shin from scrambling up on the roof to put it out before a calamity occurred.
The hump is where the helium is stored.