A TikToker from Southern California witnessed a group of reckless individuals launching lantern balloons with lit candles into the sky near a nature preserve, despite wildfires ravaging Los Angeles.
The woman, who preferred to remain anonymous, had gone to a beach near Santa Barbara to relax after assisting fire victims in Los Angeles.
She was shocked to see a group of people launching “sky lanterns” dangerously close to a campground, nature preserves, and a residential area in a county with a high fire risk designation.
She witnessed them continuously lighting and releasing more lanterns into the air.
Sky lanterns can fly up to 1,500 feet and have been known to cause fires when they crash-land on forests and rooftops.
Due to the potential fire hazard, sky lanterns are prohibited in many states, including California.
When one of the lanterns drifted towards the mountains, the TikToker decided to take action.
Together with another concerned individual, they filmed the party and confronted them. The party claimed to have a permit for the illegal lanterns and insisted they were safe because of the calm weather.
The TikToker, who had been assisting wildfire victims in Los Angeles, expressed her dismay at the party’s ignorance of the ongoing devastation.
She recalled a man, also confronting the group, revealing that his family had been displaced by the fires in LA and now had to shelter in the area where the lanterns were being released.
Eventually, the group claimed the lanterns were part of a memorial service.
Feeling unsafe and shaken by the experience, the TikToker, who resides in Santa Barbara, called 911 to report the situation. Local authorities arrived and put a stop to the lantern-launching.
Reflecting on the incident, she expressed her distress at witnessing such reckless behavior in the midst of the devastating wildfires in California.
“Just seeing this, and knowing whatâs happening in LA, physically going down there, it absolutely devastated me to see a lot of it burning it to the ground,” she said. “I thought I would be safe up here, but now I donât feel safe at all.”
