# Are those floating candle things dangerous? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 28, 2015, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-floating-candle-things-dangerous/726365 "2015-07-28T01:22:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2015, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-floating-candle-things-dangerous/726365/21 "2015-07-28T12:15:08Z")
Probably be safer to go with a helium filled mylar balloon dangling a glow stick. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2015, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-floating-candle-things-dangerous/726365/22 "2015-07-28T13:23:38Z")
Thery are, indeed, illegal in Masachusetts and elsewhere, and for precisely the reason you state – they can come down in isoilated dry wood areas and start fires. A couple of years ago we went with some people who were commemorating the one year anniversary of a family member’s death by setting a bunch of these fire balloons off on a New Hampshire beach. The wind carried them out over the ocean, where they couldn’t start any fires. The police came and shut them down, though. It’s illegal in NH, as well, even if you’re at the beach – sometime the wind doesn’t carry them out to sea, but in to land. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2015, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-floating-candle-things-dangerous/726365/23 "2015-07-28T14:34:31Z")
> [@obbn](#): > > Sorry for my old eyes, big thumbs and auto correct. At least it provides some laughs Please don’t apologize. I keep giggling over the thought of 30 camels flying merrily over New England. “Look, honey! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…???” ---
**Author:** ![Cartoonacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/848f3c/32.png) [@Cartoonacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartoonacy)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2015, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-floating-candle-things-dangerous/726365/24 "2015-07-28T15:06:20Z")
That’s silly. Camels don’t fly. [They swing on webs.](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/434245589041689135/) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2015, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-floating-candle-things-dangerous/726365/25 "2015-07-28T15:09:59Z")
> [@Cartoonacy](#): > > That’s silly. Camels don’t fly. [They swing on webs.](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/434245589041689135/) That’s what happens if you’re bitten by a radioactive camel. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2015, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-floating-candle-things-dangerous/726365/26 "2015-07-28T15:58:35Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > Probably be safer to go with a helium filled mylar balloon dangling a glow stick. Even so, I would worry about those getting tangled with an aircraft. They also get tangled in power lines. The metallic ones supposedly put on a good sparky show when that happens. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2015, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-floating-candle-things-dangerous/726365/27 "2015-07-28T16:21:39Z")
Getting tangled with aircraft seems unlikely, even less likely than regular helium balloons and we don’t ban those. Latex balloons will stay up for what, hours? And mylar balloons will stay up for many days. How long with a flame balloon fly? I’ve never seen one up close so I have no idea how much fuel they carry. ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2015, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-floating-candle-things-dangerous/726365/28 "2015-07-28T16:55:26Z")
The first time I lit one in China, a breeze nearly blew it into the open window of a nearby apartment. That scared me off of them, but they are beautiful when set off by the thousand for festivals. Where I lived in China, almost all buildings were concrete, nearly all land was paved and everything was damp all of the time, so the risk was probably pretty low once you cleared the roofs. ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-floating-candle-things-dangerous/726365/29 "2015-07-30T11:34:28Z")
Another drawback of these lanterns highlighted in the British press has been the health risk for cows (or other animals - perhaps even camels…) via them eating the lantern remains. So they’re littering fire-hazards. ---
**Author:** ![MikeF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MikeF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeF)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-floating-candle-things-dangerous/726365/30 "2015-07-30T17:14:21Z")
I live at the beach and think I will buy a bunch of these and send them off when the wind is blowing offshore. The ones I’ve seen burn out after five minutes or so. The do look pretty cool when there’s a long string of them going up. Or maybe I’ll buy some helium balloons and attach a road flare. I bet that would generate some UFO phone calls ;\>). ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2015, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-floating-candle-things-dangerous/726365/31 "2015-07-30T17:30:25Z")
> [@MikeF](#): > > I live at the beach and think I will buy a bunch of these and send them off when the wind is blowing offshore. The ones I’ve seen burn out after five minutes or so. The do look pretty cool when there’s a long string of them going up. Or maybe I’ll buy some helium balloons and attach a road flare. I bet that would generate some UFO phone calls ;\>). In his 1975 book _UFOs Explained_, skeptic Phillip J. Klass claimed that similar home-made “ballons” made from extremely thin dry cleaning plastic bags fitted with a simple framework and a candle were probably responsible for a lot of UFA sightings. He included pictures of one in flight to make his point. Klass also warned that such fire balloons were, indeed, fire hazards. It was the unwillingness of their youthful creators to possibly implicate themselves in minor crimes by confessing to setting these balloons adrift that kept these UFOs “unidentified”. ---
**Author:** ![Double\_Foolscap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85e7bf/32.png) [@Double\_Foolscap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Double_Foolscap)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2015, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-floating-candle-things-dangerous/726365/32 "2015-07-31T10:39:18Z")
There was concern in the UK several years ago that livestock would eat them if they came down in fields. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-those-floating-candle-things-dangerous/726365.md?page=1)