Less krathongs this year, but fires started by lanterns

[webfact]

Less krathongs this year, but fires started by lanterns
The Nation



BANGKOK: -- More than 800,000 krathongs were floated in Bangkok during the Loy Krathong festival on Sunday night, according to an official from the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration who said BMA staff collected the krathongs.

The total number was 5.6 per cent lower than the figure last year, the BMA spokesperson said yesterday. The drop resulted from a BMA campaign 'One Krathong One Family', as well as many Bangkok residents travelling to the provinces, said Bensai Keeyapaj.

Some 88 per cent of the 865,415 krathongs collected from canals and rivers in the capital - 757,567 of them - were made of disposable material while those made of hard-to-decay foam made up 12 per cent.

Floating lanterns were widely released this year at Loy Krathong events in Bangkok, which caused six fire incidents. She said the BMA would try to control use of yee ping lanterms, and that draft regulations were being worked out and would be passed by the city soon.

In Chiang Mai, local irrigation officials volunteered to collect krathongs floated in waterways above the Ping River watergate, which is under joint jurisdiction of two local administrative bodies, to cut short through administrative red tape and ensure this is done promptly. The office said delays in collecting the krathongs would hit routine water management and harm the environment.

-- The Nation 2013-11-19

[webfact]

Houses Burned Down By Loy Krathong Balloons
By Khaosod Online

BANGKOK: -- Numerous Thais are left complaining of the menace caused by low-flying balloon lanterns released throughout the Loy Krathong celebration.

Two houses have been burned down due to the lanterns, which resembled rudimentary hot air balloons, while a number of incidents with lesser damages has been reported in many parts of the country, police said.

One of the razed properties was a shop-house at a market in Pathum Thani province. Teams of firefighters spent 30 minutes putting out the blaze, which Mr. Thanin Phanuwattanawong, the son of the shop owner, said was started last night by a balloon lantern that landed into the store.

“We tried to put the the fire, but it spread very fast, because there are foam products in the storeroom”, said Mr. Thanin.

The other establishment believed to have been burned down the similar cause was a wooden house in Mae Sod district of Tak province. The owner, Ms. Rasmi Naengyaem, 45, said she was attending Loy Krathong festival nearby when she was informed about the fire via her mobile phone.

Ms. Phew, a Myanma national, alerted Ms. Rasmi when she spotted a lit balloon lantern falling into the house. However, the house was already completely engulfed in flame by the time she returned, Ms. Rasmi said.

Investigation for both incidents continue.

Elsewhere in the country, the lantern balloons also caused minor damages, as they landed in the fields, parks, and electric poles. Netizens on the social network shared stories and photos of damages caused by the balloons.

Officials at Lampang Airport in Lampang province said they had retrieved 108 such balloons which landed on the 1.9 kilometre-long runway of the airport throughout the night. Around 20 more balloons fell down around the airport vicinity.

An official said the balloons would have disrupted the plane landing and departing, so a number of ground staff had been placed along the runway to keep it clean from balloons.

Although Loy Krathong is more often associated with floating of Krathong onto the rivers and canals, the release of these hot air balloons, a practice which originated in the northern region of the country, has become increasingly popular among urbanites in recent years.

The authorities have advised against release of the balloons in urban areas, but the instruction has been largely unheeded. Lantern balloons were openly sold - and released - in many venues where celebration of Loy Krathong festival were held, sometimes under the gazes of law enforcement officials.

Ms. Benchasai Keeyapaj, deputy spokeswoman of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA), said lantern balloons have caused 6 small fires in Bangkok last night, which were quickly brought under control.

Officials are drafting regulation which would require balloon lantern manufacturers to comply with safety standard, such as limiting the fuel underneath the balloons to last no more than 4-8 minutes, depending on their size, according to Ms. Benchasai.

She said there is currently no legislation that specifically regulated the sales and purchases lantern balloons.

Meanwhile, Mr. Pichai Kriangwattanasiri, director of BMA′s disaster prevention and relief office, has rare good news concerning Loy Krathong: according to the official, no drowning has been reported in Bangkok throughout the festival, in contrast with large number of drownings in previous years.

Source: http://www.khaosod.co.th/en/view_newsonline.php?newsid=TVRNNE5EYzRPRFkzTVE9PQ==

-- KHAOSOD English 2013-11-19

[negreanu]

757,567

Not 757,568? .... They may have missed 1 maybe even 2??

Edited November 19, 2013 by negreanu

[NongKhaiKid]

What goes up must come down but since it's usually out of sight, Mai Pen Rai.

In the old days of Hong Kong's Kai Tak Airport laterns were banned at Chinese festivals due to being a hazard to air navigation, interfering with radar etc., of course when airborne they couldn't be stopped but anyone caught setting them suffered the legal consequences.

I don't suppose such regulations are in force here ?

[tingtongteesood]

Stupidity at its worst. Time to stop people doing these silly things every year.....

[MJP]

I think they're being banned now in the UK, along with absolutely everything else.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23129276

One of these things started a fire at a plastics recycling facility in Smethwick. You can see the thing landing on plastic wastes in this CCTV video . . .

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/smethwick-fire-watch-moment-chinese-2019175

Sure are pretty though . . . .

http://www.flickr.com/photos/56053365@N07/sets/72157637767926075/

Edited November 19, 2013 by MJP

[sirchai]

Those lanterns are really dangerous. We went to the moon river on Sunday, also bought a lantern. When I tried to make it airborne, it turned and almost caught fire, because of heavy wind.

My wife then pushed it away and it headed towards many people. Right before it hit a young girl, it got a little higher..heading to a tree. I already saw that thing falling on somebody's head, while burning.

Then Buddha's breeze...all in a sudden, it took off and left two happy guys on the ground. ( My wife and me) Gotta be careful.-

[sirchai]

Stupidity at its worst. Time to stop people doing these silly things every year.....

Then stop all the silly "things" people do in this country and Thailand wouldn't be as nice as people like me like it.-

[Moruya]

How many kratongs had effigies of Thaksin in them?

[Frank James]

It's interesting to watch the dead lanterns float back to earth. It looks like a stealth night parachute assault. One's tthat are launched from one location seem to follow the same currents and fall in the same general area. The trees and rooftops and roadsides are littered for days with the spent, gray bags. After a few weeks they are all gone. To where, who knows?

Loy krathong festivities in Chiang Mai on Monday night were crimped by a major rainstorm. Hard to keep those explosives lit in the rain.

[DrTuner]

What goes up must come down but since it's usually out of sight, Mai Pen Rai.

In the old days of Hong Kong's Kai Tak Airport laterns were banned at Chinese festivals due to being a hazard to air navigation, interfering with radar etc., of course when airborne they couldn't be stopped but anyone caught setting them suffered the legal consequences.

I don't suppose such regulations are in force here ?

BiB try to ban them once in a while. It's not a real (tea)money bringer, so most of the time they don't bother. I think last time a prohibition of lanterns was actually enforced in Pattaya it lasted all of two months. TiT.

[Loles]

What kind of money wasting .... and how much garbage in water. My God, my Buddha.

[webfact]

Loy Kratong Gone Wrong: Lanterns of hope rain fiery destruction
By Coconuts Bangkok

BANGKOK: -- Hopefully, as people released majestic Yi Peng lanterns into the sky on Loy Kratong, they didn’t wish for them to burn someone’s house down.

That’s exactly what happened last night, to the home of Thanin Panuwattawong’s home in the Baan Klang district of Pathumthani, when a Yi Peng lantern descended from the heavens to ignite foam boxes stored on the second floor. It took 10 fire trucks and 30 minutes to extinguish that blaze.

In a more severe case, an entire house in Tak province was burned to the ground. In Mae Sod district, a fire was reported to burn down the wooden home of 45-year-old Rassamee Nangyam while she was attending festivities. The neighbour reveals she saw a touch down on the roof, setting the entire home ablaze. She then called the fire department, who put out the flames in 30 minutes, Khaosod reported. [read more...]

Full story: http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2013/11/18/loy-kratong-gone-wrong-lanterns-hope-rain-fiery-destruction


-- Coconuts Bangkok 2013-11-19

[gp2002]

"but fires started by lanterns"

Now who would have thought a flame landing on a wooden roof could start a fire???

Obviously NOT the Thai people.

[Ulic]

757,567

Not 757,568? .... They may have missed 1 maybe even 2??

If you are going to make up a number you may as well make it exact.

[kutjebu]

How many kratongs had effigies of Thaksin in them?

You must be sick when you see Thaksin everywhere.

[finnomick]

...and on the bank of the Phing river some ( Thai ) numbnuts tried to launch a lantern before the air inside had heated enough for it to take off properly by itself. It came back down onto my mate's back and burnt his shirt. Luckily we managed to put the flames out very quickly or it could have been very nasty.