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See earlier this week went to see family ..a lot of family members have descended upon United Kingdom from USA, SEYCHELLES, INDIA and few other countries for a family wedding coming up in two weeks time.

And I heard the women discussing CHINESES lanterns ..the girl getting married wants to send up Chinese lanterns into the wild blue yonder.

I do not (and never have) like that idea and voiced MY opinion stating that it can cause dangerous fires unbeknown to us if the lanterns falls into trees etc... (Had the same thought when I watched HANGOVER II ) but heck do they listen...then just now in between a break came online and thought to check news out.. So how awful and eerie is it when to find this is the news on our news stations.

:bandhead2:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/07/01/smethwick_n_3527307.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cuk2%7Cdl1%7Csec1_Ink3%26pLid%3D191213

Edited by HOLMES
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Essentially they are flying incendiary devices. Down here in Sussex a lot of people light them on the downs (hills to the north of the channel coast) on New Year's eve and send them floating seawards. I have a 6th floor top apartment and have seen many floating at roof hight past my windows. If one were to land on the apartment roof...

Furthermore the wire frames from spent lanterns often land in fields and injure farm animals that chew them.

As far as I am concerned they are stupid and dangerous things sent up in the air by stupid people. There appears to be an inexhaustible supply of both!!!

Darius

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I get the allure of them but yeah, very dangerous ...

I hope the incident has changed their minds ...

I would imagine if one was to use them in California, you'd be in big trouble and with good reason ...

~Gregg

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In the same thought, I hate when people release hundreds of balloons as memorial to some one that died or whatever reason people do it, how is that not dangerous and banned, especially those foil type balloons?

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I've never heard of lanterns being released into the air. But a google search showed me plenty of photos. :blink:/> I've heard of people carrying them to a festival and carrying them back home. I've also heard of them being lit and put in a canal or lake or small body of water.

But releasing them into the air??!?!?!?! :jaw-dropping:/>

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I personally love sky lanterns. A few months ago some friends and I sent up a couple as we sat at the beach enjoying a bonfire. I thought they were really cool. One of them was gone forever, God knows where it ended up (I actually chuckled a little at the thought that it could have come floating down and landed in the middle of somebody's dinner, as there was a restaurant with outdoor seating nearby) but ironically, the second one somehow came back and landed no more than 10 feet away from where we launched it. It was just recently on the news here that the county that I was in when we were playing with the sky lanterns just outlawed their use. I was not too happy, because I think they're beautiful, but the logical side of me could see how they'd be dangerous.

Edited by TomcatFanatic123
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For those who like these lanterns tell that to the 12 fire fighters injured tackling a 100,000 tonne rubbish fire in the UK caused by one of these landing at the recycling depot. They know it was a lantern as they have it on video landing on top of the pile. 3 of these guys are still in hospital.

Julien

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I live a couple of blocks back from the coast in the West Sussex town of Worthing. A mile or so down the coast is a nice open stretch of grassland between the seafront road and the beach. On sunny summer days large groups of people travel down from inland and set up tents and large barbecues for the day. After a few hours I can smell them at my apartment a mile away and have to shut the windows. For the people who live closer it is worse. At the end of the day the barbecue crowds pack up and go home, leaving behind large quantities of rubbish and discarded food and bones etc. Early the next morning the council sends refuse crews to clean up (paid for by us locals in our council tax). Later on it begins again until the summer is over.

My point in this rant is that a lot of people care only about their own pleasure and enjoyment and have no concept of considering anyone else but themselves. They are not inherently bad, just incredibly selfish because that is the way that they have been brought up to behave. These same type of people launch firebombs into the sky because they look pretty.

Fortunately not everyone is like this but it as usual it only takes a few to spoil things.

A good dump of fire retardant from an Invader (a la "Always") would be an ideal accompaniment to their barbecues.

:cheers:

Darius

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Nowadays, one could surely make such lanterns using flickering LED's rather than open flames. Once set and launched they'd look the same in the sky and not risk starting fires abroad.

The lanterns depend on the heat of the flame to rise, an LED would not generate enough heat to float the lantern.

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The word lantern does not describe what it really is: a hot air ballon made out of paper. It is only a coincidence that the fire illuminates the hull, thus they are called lantern.

In Germany, paper balloons with a candle or other burning fuel were verboten in 1936 because they resulted in some fires. Starting in 2009, they are prohibited or resticted (a permit to fly is required in Berlin) in 15 out of 16 german federal states, which is fined with 5000 Euros.

Edited by Lancer512
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