Foster mothers Gabi Flaten and Stephanie Weitman wanted to organize an event that would help the community\u2019s foster and adopted children not feel so frightened and alone.<\/p>\n
They came up with \u201cShedding Light,\u201d a sky lantern release event initially scheduled for mid-January. Children and youth were invited to \u201ccome and release fear and pain from 2016 and shed light on your hopes for the New Year. Stand alongside your foster and\/or adoptive family and we will light up the night sky,\u201d read the Facebook invitation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought it would be a neat idea, a creative, powerful symbol,\u201d Flaten said.<\/p>\n
But a recent outright ban statewide on sky lanterns has forced the organizers to have to re-think the Shedding Light event, which was postponed to June 30 because of bad weather.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Capital City Fire\/Rescue posted the following notice on its Facebook page: \u201cAs of the state\u2019s adoption of the new fire code this month, sky lanterns are prohibited from being released in Alaska. Several groups in Juneau in recent years have had organized releases of sky lanterns in honor someone or a social cause. By state regulation, this practice is no longer legal.\u201d<\/p>\n
CCFR Fire Chief Rich Etheridge explained that the change was posted to Facebook because the fire department occasionally gets questions on releasing the lanterns.<\/p>\n
\u201dI just want to clarify this was not a local code change, it was done at a state level,\u201d he wrote in an email to the Empire.<\/p>\n
\u2018People are concerned and rightfully so\u2019<\/p>\n
Chinese lanterns, or sky lanterns, are a popular Juneau tradition, with residents frequently lighting the small paper lanterns and casting them aloft at the Winter Solstice and to commemorate life events.<\/p>\n
In October, for example, the Thunder Mountain High School boys football team lit dozens of Chinese lanterns after the game in honor of Falcons senior Ryan Mayhew, who died in an accidental shooting just a few weeks earlier.<\/p>\n
The statewide ban, which went into effect on May 19, is part of some language that was added when Alaska adopted the 2012 International Fire Code, explained state Life Safety Inspection Bureau Supervisor Jeff Morton.<\/p>\n
According to Morton, the state had lagged behind adopting more current fire codes and, until this spring, was still using the 2009 code.<\/p>\n
In that 2009 code, sky lanterns, which are considered aerial flame devices, could be used with prior approval by a fire department or whoever had jurisdiction, Morton said. They were mostly banned already by jurisdictions that set their own regulations, such as Fairbanks and Anchorage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey wanted nothing to do with them, for obvious reasons,\u201d Morton said. \u201cIt\u2019s like lighting a paper airplane and throwing it into the wind. Now imagine 150 of those lit and traveling uncontrolled. You can imagine the consequences. \u2026 There\u2019s just no safe way to deploy those things.\u201d<\/p>\n