The National Farmers Union (NFU) is warning people not to release Chinese lanterns during the harvest season.
The union said the risk of fire in the countryside was heightened during late summer, with fields full of cereals ripening in the sun and bales of straw and hay being stockpiled.
NFU South East spokeswoman Isobel Bretherton said: “Chinese lanterns pose a fire risk in the countryside, particularly when harvest is underway. Only last month, we received a report of a Chinese lantern that had landed alight in a hay crop. Luckily the farmer put the embers out quickly and prevented a potential disaster.”
In previous summers Chinese lanterns have caused serious crop fires, as there is no control over where they land.
“Valuable crops and stocks of animal feed could easily go up in smoke at this time of year if Chinese lanterns land on farmland," warned Isobel Bretherton. "And a fire at this time of year could leave a farmer without any winter feed and bedding for animals.
“Some lanterns use wire in their construction and this can kill or injure farm animals. The wire frames of lanterns that have landed in fields can be chopped up when hay and straw is baled, and then accidentally eaten by animals later on, causing slow, agonising deaths. Farm animals can also be injured if they become entangled in this wire.”
Chinese lanterns have been banned in countries including Germany, Australia and parts of New Zealand. The NFU has called for a ban on Chinese lanterns and has an ongoing campaign against them called Think Twice.
