Despite wildfires burning through Los Angeles, a Southern California TikToker captured a group of careless idiots launching lantern balloons containing lit candles into the sky near a nature preserve.
The woman, who spoke to the Post anonymously after deleting the video, said she went to a beach near Santa Barbara to decompress after working with fire victims in Los Angeles.
What she saw next stunned her. A group of participants will be launching “sky lanterns'' a stone's throw from campgrounds, nature preserves, and residential areas in counties designated as “high'' fire danger.
“I watched them light the lanterns and throw them into the air. They just kept launching more and more,” she told the Post.
Sky lanterns can reach altitudes of 1,500 feet and have been known to crash-land on forests and rooftops, starting fires.
As a result, it is illegal in dozens of states, including California.
The TikToker decided enough was enough when he saw one of the airborne fireballs drifting towards a nearby mountain.
According to the video, she and another concerned bystander pulled out their cellphone cameras and confronted the group, but the group insisted the lanterns were safe because there was “no wind” and that the illegal lanterns were “permitted.” He claimed to have “.
“Did you even go to LA? Do you even know what's going on?” the furious TikToker fired back.
In the video, she can be heard explaining to the firebugs how she has been working with victims of the wildfires that destroyed thousands of homes and forced hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate.
“I didn't know the name of the man who was confronting them with me, but he said he was evacuating his family from Los Angeles. He said, 'We are evacuating here.' I did. And now we saw this? '' she recalled.
Eventually, someone in the group insisted that the lanterns were part of a memorial service.
“I was like, 'I'm so sorry, but I've been to Los Angeles and seen the devastation and I don't want to start a fire here,'” the resident said. in Santa Barbara.
When the group became more belligerent, the TikToker backed away and called 911. Local authorities eventually arrived and the lantern firing was halted.
But the experience left her shaken.
“When I saw this and found out what was going on in Los Angeles and actually went there and saw the city being destroyed by so many fires, I was really shocked,” she said. spoke. “I thought I was safe here, but now I'm not safe at all.”
