Let the Tiki Torches Guide light your way | Tiki Torches and Fall Safety Concerns

The truly brave won’t let something as trivial as cool temperatures drive them away from their backyard entertaining. For the rest of us (myself included) if it isn’t already time to put the tiki torches in storage, the time isn’t far off. But there’s still time to squeeze a few more tiki torch parties in, just with a new safety concern.

Fall is a beautiful time of year. Leaves turn to brilliant colors and paint the canopy overhead in licks of flame coloring to match the fire from our torches. But they also drift down into our yards where they become dry, brittle and extraordinarily flammable.

This is the time of year when you should be particularly careful with your open flame tiki torches and particularly cautious about your overhead environment. It just takes one leaf falling onto your torch, catching fire and then drifting down to accumulated leaves on the ground to lend your party a whole level of excitement you hadn’t been counting on.

If entertaining outside in the fall with tiki torches, ensure leaves are raked, collected and removed from around your torches to prevent the scenario above. Also consider what would happen should your torch be knocked over. Is there a reasonable amount of space between the likely spill area and accumulating leaves?

Finally, what may have been an adequate overhead environment for a tiki torch in the spring and summer may be less so in the fall. Dry leaves may be caught in branches overhead and more prone to combustion. Revaluate your tiki torch placement and err on the side of caution.

The turning of the seasons may not be enough to drive the truly macho among you indoors just yet. But consider the advice above and enjoy your tiki torches safely!