Lincoln considering ban on sky lanterns

The Lincoln City Council is considering an ordinance banning aerial luminaries, or sky lanterns, due to fire safety hazard.

Officials say they have been having a lot of problems with sky lanterns during race weekends.

Officials said during the last race at the Talladega Superspeedway, 140 sky lanterns were counted in the air over Speedway Boulevard.

They have seen them turn sideways, catch fire and land on fire.  Almost all the other tracks on the NASCAR circuit have banned them, but there are seasonal vendors who bring them in.

The proposed ordinance would make it unlawful to "buy, sell, barter, exchange, trade, offer for sale, distribute, give away, possess, ignite, discharge, light, fly, release into the atmosphere, otherwise use or bring into the city ‘aerial luminaries,’ which are defined in the ordinance as "a lantern, commonly of paper with a bamboo or other frame, using an attached heat source to become and remain airborne by the use of heated air.