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I think that is Hydrogen. It was such a fail that the Helium inside was subject to fission and broke down into Hydrogen atoms.
I saw this on RWJ in Youtube.
Oh, the humanity!!!!!
Awesome comment – exactly my thoughts.
Sorry but this doesn’t mean that your thoughts are necessarily and automatically awesome.
You’re a douche, just like your mom.
(I never thought I could leave a comment that only consists of someone’s name, but) SO IS YOUR MOM!
my chemistry teacher once did the same: but as the baloon exploded, all windows in the classroom broke
So long for being a teacher.
Reply chain FTW
co-co-co-combo breakeoh everyones done.. awkward.
c-c-c-c-c-combo revival!!!!!!
THE CHAIN MUST NOT END
The chain must go on (even without a reply-button…)
I did magic!
One must create one’s own reality, like George W. Bush. Those below me are members of the reality-based community.
My Science Teacher burnt the whole chemistry Lab down.
And Yes, the chemistry lab died.
MEOW!
Yay! I’m with reality!
Reality rulez
LOL! It’s the Hindenburg Jr.!
Man, you all got the cool science teachers. Mine just molested the female students in my class.
WITH HYDROGEN.
and it takes one to know one lol
I never quite understood this insult. I know that mom is still important for you, since you’ve not left home yet she probably still runs your life generally. Mom is kind of irrelevant in mine. It would be almost like comparing me to Angela Merkel.
I never understood how it ever was an insult as my mom is far worse than a douche… seriously, I think I would go with a huge douche(even if it’s a guy) instead of my mom, it’s almost a compliment actually
awesome unlike your face well at least thats what your mom told me
That’s kind of impossible, seeing as no such video exists.
Uhh, yeah it does.
Thanks for that!
“I totally expected candy to fall out.”
That was evil, but I laughed. I’m evil.
lol retard. Do you even know who RWJ is?
Unless he’s invented sustainable fusion or something equally important, who f***ing cares? Only retards are interested in the lives of “celebs.” Except when they fail in an awesomely entertaining way.
That’s what i was going to say
Or the helium was subject to fusion burning beryllium and carbon! KAWOOM!
If there was fusion happening, there would be a bigger explosion than that…………………..
Now that would be cool! Of course… the camera probably wouldn’t have survived.
oh, so you don’t think there was a fusion happening?
what’s up with you being incognito, cpt. obvious?
thats what i was thinkin
Helium is not flammable. Yes, this was most likely Hydrogen.
Nope, helium, if it was hydrogen it would have made a huge explosion when it first started to burn (hydrogen is explosive if ignited in that manner).
The big bang at the end is when the remainder of the balloon hits the electricity pole wiring at the back.
guys guys, pls, there was no helium nor hydrogen in that ballon since neither of those ingnites spontaneously.
that was a hot air ballon, with a little tincan, or something similar attached to its base, that burns a little amount of fuel (usually solid fuel) and makes the air hot and the ballon goes up……. ever been to a hotair ballons exhibition? same happens here
sad thing is that ballon was poorly designed, and you should never put a string to it, since the balancing resulting can make the ballon to got fire from the fuel, just as happened here
the electrical explosion was pretty cool thou
*balloon ….. several times
It surely isn’t Helium, it’s surely Hydrogen. Though they are not used in this time, I wonder why they used it now.
Its neither hydrogen nor helium. Its a homemade hot air balloon. The way it works is simply light a very small fire under a hole in the bottom of the balloon, then let it go. The balloon will inflate and rise quite high as long as it doesn’t catch fire to the lining of the balloon – as happened in this video.
exactly my thought when I read and saw this
I could have sworn helium wasn’t flammable, let alone explosive.
It’s a hot air balloon and the internal flame lit the balloon itself. The explosion is not the balloon but rather the power lines shorting when the balloon touches them.
This is still a fail for doing this close to power lines.
The fail here isn’t Failblog thinking a paper lantern is a helium balloon but the number of people in the comments trying to look intelligent by haughtily pointing out helium doesn’t burn…like that would have made a difference.
The balloon is made of paper, it doesn’t matter what you put in it, paper burns.
Win?
Yes, this is a WIN
Goddamn trolls calling every Fail a WIN
… Win.
Try and stop us mwa ha ha ha ha!
Point being that the balloon clearly isn’t made out of helium. Had this been just “Balloon Fail,” I, and most other commenters, wouldn’t have had any issues.
Yeah, again, you are missing the point. Had this been a helium balloon the outcome would have been identical. The paper would have burned, the junction box would have exploded.
The video is mistitled, but you don’t understand why. The reason it’s “clearly” not a helium balloon is that a helium balloon wouldn’t spontaneously catch fire. It’s obviously a paper lantern (hot air balloon) with a candle inside, the wind blew it over so the candle caught the side and set it on fire.
On a side note, balloons aren’t “made out of” helium, they are filled with it.
A helium balloon wouldn’t catch fire because heat is not used to generate lift with one. The title is clearly a fail because it is incorrect and misleading. Having helium in the title implies that it is in some way important so it’s fair to assume that the poster of this fail believed that helium was the cause of the fire despite the fact that helium isn’t flammable and that the balloon wasn’t even filled with helium (or any lighter than air gas).
And whether a balloon is “made out of” helium or not is irrelevant. That’s semantics and you pointing that out just makes you seem haughty and elitist.
and boom goes the dynamite
and you correcting that makes you seem haughty and elitist
finally! someone who understood the video!
yes, not helium, nor hydrogen……… just hot air balloon, a candle, and poor judgement criteria to fly it that near electrical cables
Actually, if the balloon were filled with helium, it wouldn’t burn. You know, due to a lack of oxygen. Feel free to watch either A) read a science textbook or B) watch the mythbusters episode on the Hindenburg.
There is plenty of oxygen to fuel a fire OUTSIDE the balloon. A helium filled balloon made out of paper or other flammable material would still burn just fine; the helium would escape and the paper would continue to burn.
That being said, this particular balloon is NOT a helium-filled one, but that part is irrelevant in the “why does it burn”.
Yeah, because anytime helium is present, a vacuum appears in space that removes all oxygen from everywhere. Do not you fools know about wormholes?
“”"”It’s a hot air balloon and the internal flame lit the balloon itself. The explosion is not the balloon but rather the power lines shorting when the balloon touches them.”"”"
“”"”This is still a fail for doing this close to power lines.”"”"
Yes
The explosion was from the power line. FAIL for you!
I have never seen/heard a power line explode like that.
You just did, moran…
*moron
*power lines don’t explode. transformers do.
TROLL DOUBLE FAIL
optimus prime sploded?
looked like a voltage regulator to me
More likely the transformer blew. You’re still a moran.
*moron, you moron.
He could have been comparing you to an adult Maori warrior. Ever think of that?
Win
Or just being sarcastic. Morans.
Frank and drunken_coyote use the term ‘moran’ for ‘moron’ to mock the many TeaParty enthusiasts (a/k/a teabaggers) who misspell words in their angry protest signs. Moran for moron, muslin for muslim, educaton for education, etc.
Moran is fast becoming the new teh.
I liked the old teh.
for me, teh is an actual typos 90% of teh time.
Transformers always blow……..Michael Bay sucks.
Win!
Indeed.
That was not a power line fault, there is no arc or buzz sound and the explosoin is spherical.
powerline arc/explosion = pzzzzt pzzzzt bang!
gas explosion = boom!
this = boom!
you are stupid
Not really. Are you an electrical engineer or otherwise work in the power industry and know what electrical fires and explosions sound like?
yes to all three, actually
also, you, me, and Jambi should get together and discuss unconventional love sometime
thats why this helium is a total fail.
I saw that one coming.
That’s what she said!
I know, I was there!!
I don’t remember seeing you.
C-C-C-COMBOBREAKER
Hellium can’t burn. failblog fail once again.
Hellium may not but helium can.
helium may, but Helium can’t.
Helium can’t, but trolls sure can……………(or is it Trolls?)
I swear that is not a helium balloon.
That was a hot air balloon, The torch inside it burned the paper outside.
Let me say this:
Oh, the humanity!!!!
Oh the huge matinee!
Oh the Hugh Manatee?
Oh the huge maneater!
C-C-C-C-COMBOBREAKER!!!
should have been “oh the huge manatee”
Eau de Humanity?
I’ll bet that stuff smells like crap.
Was I the only one to think “You startled the witch” when the baloon exploded and they started screaming and running?
LAWL!! They should know better! you have to sneak up BEHIND the witch and bash it….DUH!
Thats hydrogen in the balloon lols… Helium is too unreactive to catch fire and explode
Ya know that if it would have been hydrogen(hydrogen being one of the most reactive elements an highly flammable), as soon as you saw fire or smoke, it would have blown up, you did know that before showing off your knowledge about gas, right?
I love it when people try to act smart but fail at it. Hydrogen is flammable but not explosive on its own. The difference is that explosives must contain Oxygen so that the oxidation reaction does not rely strictly on the surrounding oxygen in the air. Pure hydrogen will burn rather quickly, but it will not explode. To get an explosion you would have to mix the hydrogen with oxygen before you ignite it.
I don’t understand how they could have put pure hydrogen into that balloon without unintentionally mixing it with oxygen… And that is all
Easily, if you have access to a hydrogen canister. We’ve done it several times, and it will explode in air if ignited – there is enough oxygen in the air.
Needs a new category on failblog : “what did they expect”.
That would definitely be a great category. EVERYONE SPAM FAILBLOG TO MAKE THEM ADD “What Did They Expect” AS A TAG/CATEGORY
Shocking
Helium does not explode
Can anyone supply context? I’m curious what the emblem on the side is about.
I saw that too. Looks like a “White Power” emblem.
This is an experiment from a primary school in Mexico. I highly doubt the emblem means “white power”.
Taco power!
OK, Rocket Scientist’s! If that had been Hydrogen there would have been an explosion of epic proportions. Nice Fail though!
No there wouldn’t ¬_¬
Hydrogen burns rapidly, it doesn’t explode unless compressed or mixed with oxygen.
I don’t think hydrogen burns AT ALL unless it’s mixed with oxygen, no?
Nothing can burn without oxygen, as far as I know.
That depends on your definition of “burn”; many chemicals react without oxygen and produce flames, such as titanium and nitrogen.
Yup: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combustion
Doesn’t technically require oxygen, just an oxidizing agent. Basically, anything with room for some extra electrons.
See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redox
Nothing can combust without oxygen, but plenty of things can burn without it in the sense that they produce a flame and heat.
Combustion is self sustaining oxygen reaction, but it’s not the only exothermic reaction.
No hydrogen will not burn without oxygen, but unless you’re flying a balloon in space that’s a little irrelevant.
The point I was making is that if you fill a balloon with hydrogen and then lit it the escaping hydrogen will ignite as it meets the oxygen in the air, resulting in a fairly slow, controlled burn as the video I linked demonstrates.
If you filled the balloon with a hydrogen oxygen mix however it would burn rapidly. Still not technically an explosion unless it would put under pressure as there wouldn’t be a significant increase in volume. It would be deflagration.
that was so tight
I like how you tried to look smart but couldn’t even pluralize ‘scientist’ properly.
No no no, they were talking to the rocket scientist’s exclamation point.
I see what you did there XD
Wow a lot of failure in understanding. The gas in the balloon is neither burning nor exploding. It tears open and the BALOON itself catches fire (notice black smoke?) Hydrogen does not produce black smoke when it burns, the initial cause is likely a single power line. The balloon then drifts over and looks to contact multiple lines at a time, the explosion is high voltage powerlines shorting out.
You don’t need hydrogen or any flammable gas. If you doubt this go get a kite (no gas) and go fly it near some power lines. Just make sure you have someone film it and submit the results here.
Kthxbai
I concur.
and directly send your candidature to the Darwin Awards
I’d love to take your response seriously, but you spelled BALLOON wrong!
It was a single typo, he spelled it correctly every other time.
ass.
i am a lineman and work on power lines every day and Wahooo is right! this sort of thing happens all the time, anything that contacts the lines and creates a path to another phase will cause this, even the smoke could have been conductive enough to cause this given a high enough voltage! more voltage more boom.
You’re being sensible. Stop it. It interrupts the trolls.
AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!! COMMON SENSE! IT BURNS!
I like when the balloon exploded.
is that sure not intentionally? my teacher did something similar inside a class (was a old weirdo though). lol
Pretty sure they didn’t intentionally float a balloon they were holding with a string into a power line, unless it was some kind of bizarre suicide attempt.
I dunno. You’d have to be PRETTY FREAKIN’ STUPID to be flying it that close to the power lines UN-intentionally, especially with all those people standing around.
That said, there are a lot of really stupid people out there. So, it could go either way.
I wish I’d gotten a chance to comment on here before everyone else commented on how it’s a fail on Failblog’s part for claiming that it’s a helium balloon. I already know that it was probably filled with hydrogen because He isn’t flammable and H is. How can I prove my intelligence now? I feel so empty… :/
To prove your intelligence, you could see that it is neither a helium nor a hydrogen balloon, it is a hot air balloon, and it was the balloon itself that caught fire, not the gas. Your intelligence would have known that while it’s true that H is flammable, it does not produce black smoke – that is from the balloon. And it would have noticed that the explosion was from a high-voltage power shortage when the balloon made contact with power lines, not gas.
How many times will this go through the cycle of
“helium-hydrogen-stfuitwasahotairballoonyouidiots”?
Not only was the balloon filled with hot air but most of these comments are!
that is teh firstest comment i has lol’d at todays! dis coment be very true!
Hindenburg!
Exactly, that was my first thought when i saw it
I’m sorry for being an idiot. I might as well kill myself. If you see on the news a story about a 15 year old girl killing herself it was probably me…
Nice to know
Don’t forget to make a video of it and post it on FAILblog.
Has “Louie the Lightening bug” taught people nothing? Don’t play (or party) near powerlines
That’s hot air.
The fail here is the title. If it were helium it wouldn’t have exploded, thats hydrogen in the balloon.
Actually, it’s nitrogen, oxygen, argon, carbon dioxide, and trace amounts of other gases.
lol nice way to make him look like jackass
It’s helium. Hydrogen would have exploded when the paper caught fire, anything else is too unstable or too heavy.
No, the gas is definetly irrelevent, read the previous comments before going on like a smart ass about how you prove the gas inside the balloon to be somthing other than air. It’s a hot air balloon, deal with it
*shrug* I forgot that hot air rises.
Guys, it has nothing to to with the gas inside the balloon. The paper is creating an arc between two powerlines, that’s what made the huge sound/flash.
Where is the source video?
This happened on mexico!
You are wrong, for there are no power lines in Mexico.
Right, that’s why he said “on” Mexico
Was it a paper or a mylar balloon. Mylar is a conductor, is it not? And if it crossed 2 power lines, arcy sparky!
And let me add this….
As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!
Ha ha! Best line, ever! Funny show too.
Hmm.. The explosion seems to have been caused by
FALCON–PUNCH!
I’m just glad several people made the Herbert Morrison reference.
Failblog fail! If the balloon was filled with air it wouldn’t float!
Wait, what?!
You idiot
Perhaps filled with ducks?
No, no. Witches only float on water, not in the air.
they say : LET’S BURN A BALLOON!!
and the power line say : KABOUM!!!
This was a really interesting comment section to read
Indeed. Especially when people started to repeat ideas that have already been discussed and shot down.
PULL!
BANG!
lmao, this one made my day. I’ve almost done this before!
The explosion when the balloon contacts the power lines is due to two things:
1. The plasma of the flames acts like an electrical conductor (think Jacob’s Ladder), providing what may as well be a dead short between phase (hot) lines or even phase to neutral or ground.
2. Lines like that are meant for high current loads, but when the current goes beyond a certain point, the system hardware is put in danger of damage so the prime directive at that point is to stop the current flow as quickly as possible. Going back to the Jacob’s Ladder example, a standard fuse runs the risk of becoming a Jacob’s Ladder of sorts if it isn’t completely vaporized. This is done with what’s known as an expulsion fuse. The over-current ignites an explosive (doesn’t really explode, just generates a lot of non-conductive gas) that vaporizes the fuse wire and prevents an arc from forming across what’s left of the fuse contacts. That’s what caused the screaming and running.
You can see the same thing in the old video of the “transformer explosion” where the cooling oil sprays out and flares up, followed by another louder explosion on a pole just behind the flaming transformer.
very vey informational thankz alot
Plasma? What do you think the balloon was made of, rocket fuel?
Fire is plasma. Thanks for playing.
Wow, you certainly would have won that argument had you not been talking complete bollocks.
Fire is created when something violently reacts with oxygen creating an oxide. Plasma is created when a gas is ionized (a loss of electrons).
They aren’t even related. One is a chemical reaction, the other is a state of matter. Do you think plasma TVs have a furnace in the back?
For the record, my rocket fuel statement was based on the fact that it is possible for combustion to ionise air and produce plasma, but the heat needed would be around the 12,000 degrees kelvin mark.
Paper burns at 700 kelvin…you can see the problem.
Not to mention fire isn’t even a state of matter
Pretty sure I said that didn’t I? Fire is a chemical reaction, plasma is a state of matter. Was that not clear?
wow, you’re even being defensive towards people agreeing with you
Worst case scenario lol.
HOT AIR BALLOON
This happened in my city, in the highschool I attended.
Period.
original video
i farted it stank really really bad
Hindenburg Balloon? lol
The true FAIL is the title: helium balloons don’t catch on fire. Besides, it’s the general level of ignorance that has prevented the poster from knowing a hot air balloon when he sees it. These are (or were) quite common in Brazil and other places outside the United States. Of course, my brother and I made ours from dry cleaner bags with Sterno-soaked tampons (provided by my sister) as a heat source.
When you “failed” the title, I was worried you were going to tell me it was filled with Hydrogen. I have gained a slight, but significant, amount of respect for Brazil
Your sister soaks her tampons in Sterno?
woaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
this is NOT a hot air ballon. Those are much bigger.
It says Helium ballon.
Duh
Man you have no idea how much I want this to be a serious comment. The name just makes it that much better.
this is why I’m ashamed to call myself american
same
You should be ashamed to be yourself, seeing as how “American” obviously isn’t an American.
You cannot quote something and misspell it! To the furnace with you!
its a hot air balloon, i used to make them out of dry cleaner bags. same thing would happen to mine.
The humanity.
Omg its obviously hydrogen! Helium is an inflammable gas! Go back to primary school you american neanderthals.
V3ry 1337. R34d 7h3 7hr34d.
Oh, the humanity!
The circuit breaker on the powerline blew. The “explosionn” was the arc from that.
i dont care what it was.lol it was still soo stupid!!
I just love the sight of stupid people running in terror…
i mean, it’s dangerous….
This is not hellium. It is Hydrogen. Pretty impressive, it could kill someone.
Read the other comments before posting a new one. It’s a hot air balloon.
Nice explosion.
Now that’s hardly Helium…
I’m pretty sure this is an unintentional Hindenburg reenactment. There’s what looks like an iron cross on the side and it went down in flames the exact way.
This video “about helium” published on failblog is fail by itself! This is not helium, probably is hydrogen (H2). Helium isn’t flamable at all!
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! no, it’s…SUPER FAIL!
Damn, that was a test model for their new way of sneaking across the boarder.
I thought helium only made your voice squeaky when you inhaled it
wow never put balloons near power lines
It was obviously not helium, nor was it hydrogen. it was a simple small hot air balloon (when it tilted the balloon caught fire because of the open flame), it can’t have been hydrogen because it would immediatly have exploded when the balloon caught fire. the explosion is due to the fact that the balloon flew into the high-voltage powerlines and the transfo blew …
Bravo! I was waiting for someone to figure this out. I like the ones that say it’s obviously hydrogen, learn chemistry. Lol. Hypocritical fail.
Yup, lot of people here who never had their chem teacher light up a hydrogen filled balloon for them
So if helium did the same to the hindenburg why do we put it in ballons
We put it in balloons so that we can untie the ends, suck in the pure helium, and then speak funny.
Helium was difficult to obtain in large enough quantities in the late 1800′s – early 1900′s outside of the US. The Hindenburg was German made so they cheaped out filling it with hydrogen instead, which was why it burnt as fast as it did.
Helium is an inert element, which basically means its completely unable to burn whatsoever. Haha and ya it makes you talk funny which we all know is totally awesome.
The real fail here is failblog thinking that helium is flammable. Retards.
OH THE HUMANITY!!!!!!!
The fail is the person who thought that was helium.
Personally, since helium is a real pain to produce and is quickly lost from our atmosphere, and has the lowest freezing temp of any substance, ever– I think it should be all but illegal to put in balloons. I have no problem with them having used hydrogen. I just think the balloon itself was crap and that they shouldn’t have sailed it into a transformer.