Propane balloons

[snopes]

Comment: This story was told to me by my cousin who lives in Barrie
Ontario. He says a friend of his was having a birthday party for his
little girl and got tired of blowing up the balloons, so he thought of how
he could do it more easily and realized he had lots of gas under pressure
in his portable propane tank and he used it to inflate the balloons. He
then taped them to the ceiling with masking tape.

When he brought out the birthday cake and lit the candles. The heat dried
out the tape, and when the balloons descended they landed on the birthday
candles and exploded. No one was seriously hurt, but the fire department
said it was lucky he hadn't filled all the balloons.

[overyonder]

Not particularly smart (if it's true)... And one would have to get a bit creative to bypass the no-flow valve that most modern propane tanks now have.

O_Y

[musicgeek]

Originally Posted by overyonder

And one would have to get a bit creative to bypass the no-flow valve that most modern propane tanks now have.

O_Y

How so? All you would need is the attachment hose for a grill, etc. (I suppose that's "a bit creative" as opposed to trying to fill balloons directly from the tank valve, but it doesn't seem terribly difficult.)

ETA: FWIW, I've found citations of multiple instances of people purposely creating propane balloons (particularly one notable incident in Calgary), but none of accidental occurrences.

[CenTex]

You have a pocketknife? Cut the hose.

[overyonder]

Originally Posted by CenTex

You have a pocketknife? Cut the hose.

Steel braided. Been there done that. I had to bring out the angle grinder.

O_Y

[GenYus234]

Unless you are posting from beyond the grave, I assume you disconnected the hose before using the angle grinder on it.

[Alarm]

I'm a bit curious about the "taped to the ceiling" bit

I've decorated for lots of parties and attended many others and I don't think it's very customary to have ballons taped with painter's tape where they can fall over anyone and anything.

Also, the heat from the candles dried the tape out? How old was the birthday person?

[Xia]

Originally Posted by Alarm

I'm a bit curious about the "taped to the ceiling" bit

I've decorated for lots of parties and attended many others and I don't think it's very customary to have ballons taped with painter's tape where they can fall over anyone and anything.

I just did that at my Halloween party, except I used 3M sticky squares, not painter's tape. They didn't stick very well, as you can see in this photo(link). That was ok though because I was going for an "abandoned New Year's Ball" kinda feel for that room.