Tealight candles from Dollar Tree cause BIG flame

More than likely these candles were made in a foreign country w/out
the safety guidelines that the US has. It sounds like to me they used
an oil base substance as a scenting agent and probably assumed that no
one would ever throw water on it. I usually get my candles from
Walmart. They are cheap (sometimes more cost effective than the dollar
store) and reliable. If you are ever in doubt, throw baking soda on
the flame instead of water. This will prevent you from turning your
candle into a blow torch again.

This is a great letter! It very calmly explains an extremely stressful
experience. Your acknowledgement of your own error really adds to your
reasonable tone. (You sound much more collected than I would.) I hope
you get a response, you deserve one! :)

You can also use something called a wick dipper to safely extinguish a
flame. It is a metal tool that you use to push the wick down into the
wax pool and then pull it back up after the flame goes out. It
prevents the residual smoke too.

Glad everything is alright.

Did you trim the wick? All candle wicks should be trimmed to under
1/2 inch. The longer the wick is, the bigger the flame will be and
the more irregular it will burn as the wax will be heated up too
quickly/unevenly. I assume being dollar store candles, the wicks are
not nicely trimmed and consistent.

Who is the manufacturer of this product? You may want to try
contacting them too as Dollar Tree only sells it. Likely it is some
Chinese company, but its still worth a shot.

Additionally, Chad is right regarding the fact that the best way to
put out a fire such as this is to smother it.

if you ever have a similar situation, baking soda will put out a fire
that cannot be put out with water. it smothers the flame without
causing the oil/wax to splatter.

Water and oil / wax don't mix.

If you don't have a candle-snifter then it's better to use something
else to put it out.


I'm assuming the candle was too high to be blown out so...


A small metal lid - even a glass plate or small glass spice dish can
be used to snuff the candle.




and believe me... the water ... no.

A couple of nights ago I watched some vids for "Time Warp" and they
showed what happens when...

using water to extinguish a grease fire - FIREBALL
putting boiling water into oil - FIREBALL
adding ice water to boiling oil - FIREBALL


Sure you won't get a fireball with a candle or a tea light, but it's
the same idea... water/oil/wax are not friends.

While this is definitely a hazard, there's something timely to this
letter with the holidays coming up.

You might consider sending a copy of this to your local fire
department to see if they have any safety awareness lessons coming up
that they could warn people about this product in. If nothing else,
save someone else from risking what could turn out to be a
catastrophe!

Personally, I would never trust a candle from a dollar store, all of
their other merchandise is second rate cheap workmanship junk. Im glad
this ended in a relatively uneventful manner, it could have been alot
worse! my grandmother is an expert on tea light candles. she had
always said NEVER use scented tea lights because they tend to burn
irregularly, something about the fragrance oils or something.
Hopefully dollar tree will get back to you, but if their corporate
customer service department is as bad as their in store service, i
wouldnt count on it. my local store has a big sign in the door: NO
REFUNDS FOR ANY REASON.

good luck