Shropshire farmers call for a ban on blaze-risk lanterns
Farmers in Shropshire are calling for a blanket ban on all types of Chinese or paper lanterns – with some finding them on their fields about once a fortnight.
County fields are a "tinderbox" just waiting for a candle which could set them alight and destroy this year's crops, they said.
The calls for a ban come after a huge blaze at a recycling plant in Smethwick, one of the largest ever to take place in the West Midlands, in which ten fire fighters were injured.
CCTV footage shows the fire, which began on Sunday, was caused by a lantern which landed on 100,000 tonnes of plastic and paper.
David Mills, county chairman for the Shropshire branch of the National Farmers Union, farms near Craven Arms.
He said: "I think the lanterns should be banned.
"I have found them in my cereal crops and when I do I think I am very lucky there wasn't a fire.
"They do look very pretty but there is a wire cage that goes up with it – it is not going to disintegrate.
"It is not fair that people should put something up there that is going to come down and cause us problems."
He said there needs to be more forward thinking about the impact things that are put in the sky will have.
Mr Mills said he "quite often" finds lanterns lying on his fields during harvest time, after they have been used at celebrations throughout the summer.
He said the fire in Smethwick has raised awareness of the problems the lanterns cause.
"You don't play with fire, so why put a candle in something that goes up in the air," he added.
And it is not just the risk of fire caused by the lanterns that is of concern to farmers in Shropshire.
They said the wire structure in the lanterns also causes problems for grazing crops when it lands in fields full of livestock.
It is something that people in the industry have been trying to draw awareness to for many years.
Rob Alderson, from Upper Walton Farm, near Onibury, said that he finds a Chinese lantern on his land about once a fortnight, often with names written on them, and he believes they have travelled quite far as his farm is about seven miles from the nearest town, Ludlow.
"When you have dry periods you have fields of hay, trying to get to the point it is dry enough to put into bales," Mr Alderson said.
"Large areas of the countryside are at risk. I can't imagine how anyone would say that letting one of these things go up in the air and looking lovely outweighs the risk – the countryside becomes a tinder box.
"It is a shame that such a fire had to occur for us to put the point across."
He said farmers were the first people he thought of when he saw the devastating fire at the Smethwick recycling plant on the news.
He said from the CCTV you "can't deny that a lantern caused that carnage" – but pointed out that there are very few CCTV cameras in the countryside. And if there is a barn fire you cannot prove if a lantern started it because the lantern would be destroyed, he added.
