gonnaluvit

Hello I dont know if this is the right place to post this but I read this in a newsletter that I recieve in my e-mail and thought I would let all of you know about it.

~~ WARNING ABOUT GEL CANDLES ~~

now, but the "A lady had a terrible thing happen to her and her family last
week, and I wanted to share it with all of you so that you could
be warned and warn your friends and family as well. She had a
gel candle burning in her bathroom...it exploded and caught her
house on fire. The house burned down and they lost everything.
The fire marshall told her that this is not the first incident
where a gel candle has exploded and caused a fire. He said that
the gel builds up a gas and often times it explodes and sets
fire to the room it is in, which is what happened to her.The
fire was so hot it melted the smoke alarm, and they didn't
discoverthe fire until there was an explosion, which was her
toilet blowing up, and then it was too late...the entire
upstairs was engulfed in flames. Smoke damage and water damage
have destroyed what wasn't destroyed by fire. Her family is
devastated. All their momentos and everything of value and
meaning are gone.Another lady who loves the gel candles had one
burning on her mantle and it caught fire just like the message
above. She was at home at the time and saw it happen and grabbed
the candle to keep it from setting her home on fire and it came
apart in her hand. She saved her home but suffered 3rd degree
burns to her hand and 3 fingers. Please if you or anyone you
know have these candles, don't light them, they are
dangerous.And as if those two stories weren't enough...another
person was home on vacation and had a gel candle lit on the top
of the entertainment center. He too saw the candle burst into
flames. His first instinct was to blow the candle out. Well,
that didn't work, so he blew harder....the gel from the candle
splattered and went everywhere. Everywhere included his face. He
had 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree burns all over his face. The gel
doesn't cool like wax does, so the bits that were still on his
face continued to burn him. And you can't wipe the stuff off, it
just rolls up and keeps burning. Please don't use gel candles.
Fortunately his scars are not noticeable what ifs"
are tremendous.
Steph

flute

sounds like a hoax to me

reneep45

BUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yotesong

Egads! I just bought more of them a short time ago. I've been burning these for years (?, been a long time though) and have never had one explode or catch fire to anything though (any candle can catch things on fire of course but I'm careful). I wonder if this is a hoax too...

Ah ha, it is on http://www.snopes2.com. Do a search for "gel candles". It says it's true that gel candles pose more of a fire hazard than regular wax candles but these dangers get exaggerated in the e-mail warnings (and note that this e-mail was elaborated on comparing to the one on snopes).

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badhabit

Years ago my ex-husband and a friend of his found several dumpsters that had masses of the Glade candles in them from the recall. I think they sold them at $1 a piece, because of the recall they told people to make sure to put the candle into another heat resistant container in case the glass were to shatter because they were known to crack from the heat. They had given me well over 100 of these candles and I never had a problem with a single one.

flute

Thank you!

janelle

Origins: Yes, gel candles do pose fire and injury hazards beyond those presented by ordinary wax candles, so they should be accorded an extra bit of caution if you're thinking of bringing them into your home. However, as with so many e-mailed warnings, the explanation provided about what goes on is sadly in error and leaves those who are "educated" by it in the dark about what they should really be paying attention to as they are instead misled into worrying about the mysterious (and non-existent) explosive properties of the gel.

Contrary to what this e-mailed warning would have you believe, gel candles do not "build up a gas" that causes them to explode. The "gel" in gel candles is composed of substances that burn slowly and non-combustively. Akin to the wax of traditional candles, the mysterious substance's purpose is to slowly feed the wick an continuous supply of fuel, thus keeping the candle burning bright for a long time. Even if it were safe to use, a combustive substance would expend itself far too quickly for any candle manufacturer to put it to this use.

There is a special danger inherent to gel candles, but it has to do with the effect of heat on the containers that house them, not with the gel itself. If the material used to contain the goo is not sufficiently resilient, it can shatter (i.e., "explode") as the concentrated heat of the candle's flame compromises it. The glass containers used to hold these popular fragrance candles are sometimes not made strong enough to withstand the heat they are called upon to contain. Heat makes things expand, and in this case it can cause the glass that houses the gel candles to shatter. There's no mysterious gas that builds up, no strange chemical reaction brought on by dangerous unnamed substances reacting to God-knows-what, just ordinary expansion due to heat. Leave a coffee mug sitting on a hot burner long enough, and you'll see the same thing.

In this manner, a gel candle can explode in someone's hands, resulting in dire burns as the hot gel flows out to coat the victim's extremities. For this reason, it's important not to move either a lit gel candle or one that has recently been extinguished. Extinguish the candle and let it cool, then move it.

Additionally, some lit gel candles have been observed to flare up, producing flames shooting a few inches into the air, but these candles were quickly recalled by their manufacturers (e.g., the 1998 recall of 1.7 million Glade gel candles that produced flames 3 inches above the top of 2.5 inch containers). Should you encounter a gel candle that flares like this, extinguish it promptly, don't use it again, and contact the manufacturer for a refund.

As for a fire started by a gel candle being "so hot it melted the smoke alarm," such a result wouldn't have anything to do with whatever the candle was made from, but rather with the contents of the home that became fuel for the growing conflagration. Also, that a fire can (and often does) become hot enough to melt a smoke detector does not, as the e-mail states, mean the melting occurs seconds after the blaze starts, and therefore no warning is issued. Smoke detectors are routinely found melted into blobs the aftermath of house fires, but these are the same smoke detectors that went off as soon as smoke was sensed, alerting residents to the fire.

That gel candles will explode due to heat expansion shattering their glass containers outward is fact; that they're made of a mysterious chemical that touches off for no reason, with the uncontrolled burning of this substance resulting in immediate flash fires that melt everything in their path in a scant matter of seconds, is pure invention.

Because the heat expansion effect on the glass housings of gel candles poses a real danger, this form of romantic lighting should not be left lit for more than an hour or two. In common with all candles, they should not be allowed to burn unattended (which includes not leaving them lit while you drift off to sleep) or left in reach of a child, even for half a moment. Unattended candles of all stripes have started fires in which lives have been lost, so don't take that caution lightly. As for kids and lit candles, it only takes half a second to cause a lifetime's worth of scars.

If there's a power outage, be careful with the candles you use. Don't use a lit candle to check inside a cupboard or closet (this is a light source that also sets things on fire, remember, such as items hanging in a closet), and certainly never take a lit candle with you to check on what you think might be a fuel leak.

Candles: Use them responsibly, be they gel or wax.

Barbara "waxing poetic" Mikkelson

Additional information: Tip Sheet on Candle Safety
(National Fire Protection Association)

CARROLIN

THINK ABOUT THIS...

IF THEY DIDN'T HEAR THE SMOKE ALARM BECAUSE IT
MELTED...THEY COULDN'T HEAR THE EXPLOSION???

YEAH RIGHT!!! LOL

SMILES ANYWAY.

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