Chinese Lanterns cause massive blaze

Hopefully this will be enough to get these things banned.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-23123549

Sadly the morons who released these will probably never be traced. Why do people release things in to the air with no thought for the consequences?! Idiots

It was really only a matter of time before this happened.

and this has been proven conclusively? or is it just speculation..

Stupid bloody things.

The fire chief stating it was a lantern and it took 8 minutes to start the blaze sounds pretty conclusive to me

They’re not only a fire risk, the wire used in their construction causes massive damage and injury to animals. My wife works for the NFU and farmers have a serious problem with them. A total ban is needed.

No No, new ones are OK as they are made from biodegradable plastic and you can use safety matches to light them.

My comments about people who also release balloons usually end up being deleted from this site. Needless to say I put these people in the same category

I’m sure the RNLI would like to see them banned too.

But Houns, it was our special day… 😀

But Houns, it was our special day…

I have the strangest… 😉

But, back to these lanterns – Nasty, hateful, shitty things. Can’t wait to see them either banned or go out of fashion pronto speedy (and can they take Ugg boots with them please?)

there must be 10’s of thousands in warehouses and pound shops up and down the country.

But what about the human rights of those that want to light and release them.

A Thai chap on Koi Samui told me how much the locals hate them there as all the tourists let them off (admittedly sold to them by other Thais on the beach) and reasonably regularly they end up setting fire to the local’s wooden houses.

They should be banned

I caused a bit of a family rift by pissing off my aunt when I slagged off chinese lanterns as mindless remote littering and casual arson.

Turns out she had bought a load of them for the family to launch at a christmas get together.

Oops.

Still… I won, and we didn’t release them.

Question for any fire pesonnel, Just where do you get 200 plus firemen from and all the fire engines, and what happens if there is a serious train crash or bus crash ,who is going to rescue all the injured then.Alo swhere is al the run off going to end up,in the rivers and water courses.Also why cant they just squirt foam over it and kill it like a petrol fire.

and why was 100,000 tons of waste palstic stored outside and not sent for recycling instead of being stored as a huge fire load in the open air.

I think they should be allowed, as long as those using them are prosecuted for littering and arson.

Similar scenario to alfabus. Except that they’d been bought for my birthday. By my wife. Oops.

They may well still be lurking at the back of a cupboard somewhere..

and why was 100,000 tons of waste plastic stored outside and not sent for recycling instead of being stored as a huge fire load in the open air.

None of it actually gets recycled you know? Its just a ploy to make people feel a bit better about their landfill

OK not a fan of Chinese lanterns but they say that’s the 15th fire at the site this year, surely something else needs prioritising on the ban list such as not storing massive quantities of combustible material in a safe manner.

Burning it was probably cheaper than actually bothering to sort and recycle it.

The Chinese lantern was just a fall guy </tinfoilhat>

I think what we need here is a blanket ban on recycling, it’s obviously a huge fire risk and stopping people enjoying using Chinese Lanterns…..

Chinese lanterns are amazeballs

Some ****ing **** at torrentwalk campsite near CYB nearly set my tent alight with one of these. That place is FULL of arseholes and those lanterns are a liability. Ban them now please.

Ok, so we need to band flammable tents and recycling, but other than that everything is good…..

My comments about people who also release balloons usually end up being deleted from this site. Needless to say I put these people in the same category

Seems a bit weird? Why would comments about people releasing balloons get deleted?

Question for any fire pesonnel, Just where do you get 200 plus firemen from and all the fire engines, and what happens if there is a serious train crash or bus crash ,who is going to rescue all the injured then. Also swhere is all the run off going to end up,in the rivers and water courses.Also why cant they just squirt foam over it and kill it like a petrol fire.

I’m extraploating from my experience a bit, but the number of firemen on duty will be calculated to deal with a 1inXX (e.g. 10) years event, then the number off duty but could be called in would be able to deal with a 1inXXX (100) years event. Trying to deal with 2 major events is statisticaly unlikely as it becomes a 1inXXX (1000) 1inXXXX (10000 years). And you’ve still got other fire brigaes to call on from elsewhere in the country.

e.g the fires at Swinely a few years ago, not every engine in berkshire would have been there, but there were also a few from surey/hampshire/kent/london/midlands to make sure that nowhere else ended up without cover.

The run off ends up where it ends up, fek all you can do about that. On a refinery it would go to a water treatment plant or at least a storage pond before disposal/treatment, I’m guessing in this case it’ll just go down a sewer and the water company will have to deal with it as best they can.

Foam works on hydrocarbon pool fires at refineries by floating on the surface thus isolating the fuel from the fire, I don’t think it works so well on solid fires.

I’m extraploating from my experience a bit, but the number of firemen on duty will be calculated to deal with a 1inXX (e.g. 10) years event, then the number off duty but could be called in would be able to deal with a 1inXXX (100) years event. Trying to deal with 2 major events is statisticaly unlikely as it becomes a 1inXXX (1000) 1inXXXX (10000 years). And you’ve still got other fire brigaes to call on from elsewhere in the country.

That will be reassuring for someone whose house is burning down and the nearest fire engine is Shrewsbury.

But what a huge waste of resourses.One fire has taken up.

I’ve always disliked lanterns and can’t wait for them to be banned. We live close to Manchester and the prevailing wind always carries them out towards the peak district, littering the surrounding countryside.

Question for any fire pesonnel, Just where do you get 200 plus firemen from and all the fire engines

That’s not all at once it’s the number in total, the fire service like their numbers. There would also still be a small amount of cover left for other incidents.

Houns – Member

My comments about people who also release balloons usually end up being deleted from this site. Needless to say I put these people in the same category

Does that include the Met Office who released the weather baloon that landed on my house?

Question for any fire pesonnel, Just where do you get 200 plus firemen from and all the fire engines, and what happens if there is a serious train crash or bus crash ,who is going to rescue all the injured then.Alo swhere is al the run off going to end up,in the rivers and water courses.Also why cant they just squirt foam over it and kill it like a petrol fire.

Foam doesn’t work the same way water does to extinguish fires. They are used for different things. It is likely that those in charge of the incident put things in place to stop massive amounts of run off entering water courses, like we would do for any chemical spillage.

You would need a seriously big fire to take up 200 personnel. I mean, really big. Some of Oxfordshires biggest thatch fires recently only used 8 pumps with 6 people max per pump plus some other specialist units, the total was somewhere near 60 for that incident, and only for the first 6-10 hours, then reduced considerably down to 4 pumps, then 2, over the next 3 days.

Just for more evidence, Oxfordshire has a total of 24 fire stations across the county, with at least 10 people employed at each station, more than likely there are 12+ on each station. There is around 12 of those 24 stations with 2 or more pumps, about 4 of the stations have 3 pumps…It soon adds up.

You’d need a seriously big incident for other counties to get involved, also, that or right on the county borders.

Meh, not really that big a problem.

All so where is al the run off going to end up,in the rivers and water courses

The Environment Agency will be involved and finding out where the water is running to. If it’s going into a water course then the water will be regularly tested and if it is highly contaminated if possible and feasible it will be damned off or pumped into onion tanks where it can be skimmed or pumped into tankers.

All cost will be reclaimed back from the companys insurance.

They aren’t great for aircraft engines either…

I have one stuck on my flat roof at the moment, we get 1-2 a year in our garden a year. We are on a direct flight path from a wedding venue, which also includes passing over a motorway.

I think they must set one off for every guest that attends!

That reminds me, must check my home insurance 😉

Ban, it’s littering at the least.

Could this a covert plot by the Chinese to take over the world by burning down buildings one at a time?

They’re renowned as a patient race

We are on a direct flight path from a wedding venue

Depending on which way the wind is blowing, so is everyone else in the country.

Binners = RACIST!

😉

Some muppets in the next few weeks will be hanging bottles of petrol from these ballons and setting fire to all sorts of stuff.

and its the kids summer holidays soon.