No fly zone

By RALPH BARTHOLDT

Staff Writer

Sky lanterns are small, paper balloons with a candle inside that gracefully rise into the sky — often at weddings — as heat lifts them to elevations of several thousand feet.

Sometimes the candles ignite the balloons and they crash to earth like a flaming meteor.

It’s the second scenario that Coeur d’Alene firefighters want to avoid.

“When the heat ignites the paper bags, they turn into fireballs that fall out of the sky,” said Craig Etherton, fire inspector at the Coeur d’Alene Fire Department. “Basically people light the candle and send it off to who-knows-where it’s going to go.”

The fire department has long prohibited the graceful-looking wedding accoutrements because, given the prevailing winds around Coeur d’Alene, sky lanterns generally get blown toward Canfield Mountain, Etherton said.

“They have a habit of flying into the forest,” he said.

City council members on Tuesday stood behind the department as council members elected to specifically outlaw sky lanterns in Coeur d’Alene.

With the council’s approval, the city’s fireworks ordinance will be amended to include the prohibition of sky lanterns.

In the past, although the fire department wrote the airborne candles off as a no-no, people still used them because the city code didn’t seem to specify they were illegal.

The code simply said aerial fireworks were prohibited.

“As long as I have been here we have not allowed aerial fireworks in the city,” Etherton said.

It could be argued, however, that because they don’t go bang, sky lanterns were not fireworks. The argument doesn’t fly with the fire department, however, which calls them illegal.

The latest amendment, however, addresses the loophole.

“Adding that to this ordinance cleans that up,” Etherton said. “For us, they are a big, potential fire hazard.”

Although the candles are designed to burn out before lighting the bags on fire, the internet is full of videos showing sky lanterns that have exploded, he said. In some cases, lanterns that fell burning to earth have caused grass, and wildfires.

“The primary place that gets requests for sky lanterns is the Jewett House as part of a wedding ceremony,” Etherton said.

The amended ordinance will put an end to the burning question of whether sky lanterns are allowed at Coeur d’Alene weddings.

“Anything that uses a flame as a source of convection to lift it up, is a no-no,” council member Dan Gookin said.