Charred lanterns rekindle fire fears | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

A flight of sky lanterns found charred and deflated in Masterton on Saturday has renewed fears of brush and grass fires.

Masterton resident Graeme Stevenson said he found eight of the sky lanterns scattered in paddocks, trees, and along the roadside in Johnstone Street on Saturday afternoon.

The sky lanterns, also known as flying lanterns, work like a hot air balloon with tea- light candles heating air inside the paper lantern and propelling them for several kilometres at heights of around 800 metres.

Mr Stevenson said some of the lanterns he found on Saturday were burnt and charred and he backed a National Rural Fire Authority call made yesterday that sale of the lanterns be banned.

"The things landed after two hot days and the grass is as dry as can be and there's heaps of it. Especially in paddocks and along the roadside - the council haven't got round to cutting it yet and any accidental fire that starts could have gone for miles," Mr Stevenson said.

"They are a definite fire risk and a danger for air traffic - there are low flying planes through here all the time. The lanterns should be banned before something terrible happens."

National rural fire officer Murray Dudfield said the lanterns are "simply not suitable for the New Zealand environment" and Phill Wishnowsky, Principal Rural Fire Officer for Wairarapa, also backs a sales ban.

He said the lanterns have been mistaken as emergency beacons and pose a risk in that respect as well and there has been one known instance this year of a sky lantern setting fire to a pine plantation in Northland.

Mr Dudfield was particularly concerned the lanterns could be sold in large numbers during Chinese New Year celebrations that start on February 14.