Kong Ming lantern is an ancient Han Chinese handicraft with a beautiful and long history. Nowadays, people write their wishes on the lantern and set them afloat in the sky. However, it is unfortunately exploited for commercial purposes. As far as all of us concerned, the lantern is indeed a fire hazard as it is extremely dangerous if the lantern catches on fire mid-flight!

Kong Ming lantern is mainly made of paper and polyester, it is light in weight yet combustible. As the wind direction is often unpredictable, the lantern can easily catch on fire when the wind direction changes during flight. Undoubtedly, the lantern will stall and may hit on wires and cables on the telephone poles, or even fall onto houses or forested area and eventually create catastrophes.

To put it another way, the external temperature of the Kong Ming lantern can reach up to 300°c. In the event that the lantern sway as a result of the changing wind directions, the lantern is likely to catch fire and becoming a moving fire starter in the air, leading to calamities. For instance, let us imagine what will happen if the burning lantern falls onto gas stations or other fire hazardous areas.

On top of that, even if the lantern does not catch fire, the fire will burn out in the end and fall back down onto the earth, causing environmental pollutions.

There are many other better ways to make your wish, and you can do so with a peace of mind and with no environmental problems.

1. Incident