Dec. 10--Don't go looking for the "flying farolitos" during the annual Christmas Eve Farolito Walk on Santa Fe's historic east side this year.
The city fire marshal said Monday he doesn't plan to issue a permit that would allow Arvo Thomson to send his glowing, tissue-paper-covered lanterns floating skyward from the Acequia Madre Elementary School parking lot.
"We [can] have some pretty high winds that night, and there are just too many factors that you can't control in a residential area like that," said Fire Marshal Rey Gonzales.
The city annually grants an exemption to its "open burn" ordinance to allow farolitos -- the candle-in-a-paper bag-with-sand creations used to line streets, sidewalks and walls -- as well as the stacked-wood bonfires that Santa Fesinos call luminarias.
Thomson also has received similar waivers in recent years, with requirements that he not launch his birthday-candle-powered creations under certain wind conditions, that he keep a fire extinguisher handy and have a cellphone to call for help in case of emergency.
However, after years of drought and fire-safety campaigns, local fire officials apparently are becoming more cautious. "I think in many ways our risk management has evolved," said Chief Erik Litzenberg of the Santa Fe Fire Department, noting that he relies on the city fire marshal "to make these determinations."
Long after the Christmas Eve stroll along Canyon Road and the Acequia Madre had become a popular activity -- it now draws thousands from near and far who invade the neighborhood to soak up the holiday atmosphere -- Thomson in the early 1990s took the idea of celebrating with glimmering candlelight to new heights.
At first, the German-born car mechanic, certified massage therapist and builder didn't bother seeking permits before sending up a few of his self-destructing displays on special occasions such as birthdays or holidays -- a trick he learned in New Zealand from a Russian designer who studied under famed architect Buckminster Fuller.
The four-sided tetrahedrons, held together with Scotch tape and braced with strips of Styrofoam, typically rise at least 1,000 feet before disintegrating. And Thomson says he's never had an incident where one started a fire, partly because he won't launch one unless conditions are right.
Last Christmas Eve, he said, the city didn't issue him a permit because conditions were too bone dry -- something he said he fully understood.
And if one of the lanterns happened to touch a tree limb during launch or otherwise send sparks falling to the ground, "we stomp them out," said Thomson, whose launches are often witnessed by hundreds of people.
"I've done them on several continents and never set anything on fire," said Thomson, now a part-time Santa Fe resident who built a home near Tierra Amarilla. "They just don't start explosive fires. If it's cold, they go so high you can barely see them. It's definitely less dangerous than a bottle rocket."
Thomson, who said he started the Christmas Eve displays as "my gift to whoever" because he was disillusioned with commercialized aspects of Christmas, admitted he is "just a bit tired" after years of his self-funded effort.
Joel Falk, a teacher at Acequia Madre Elementary, has helped by getting permission from the school's principal to let Thomson use the school's gym floor to unroll and cut pieces of tissue paper while fabricating his flying lanterns.
Falk also helps students each year put thousands of farolitos outside the school and then hands out hot cider and cocoa to merrymakers. He said the "flying farolitos" had become a popular added attraction in recent years. "Last year, he wasn't flying them and I must have had 200 people asking for them," the teacher said, noting that "it's become enough of a Santa Fe institution, or whatever, that newspapers put it in their calendars of events."
Falk said of Thomson, "I think he gets a little angry that the city benefits from his activity on Christmas Eve but they don't do anything to support it."
Noting that he wasn't speaking officially on behalf of the school, the teacher said, "It's a nice tradition with our school at the center of it. I'm disappointed that it's difficult for him to get a permit, but I'm not a fire marshal and I don't know fire rules. I just know how to teach fourth grade."
Contact Howard Houghton at 986-3015 or [email protected].
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