Let’s be honest – you can’t have a party without balloons.
And for her son Aiden’s seventh birthday celebrations, Aussie mum Tina decided to go BIG on the decorations.
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Posting to the Tiny Hearts Education Facebook group, the mum explained how she bought the sweet display from a local party store.
She explained: “The balloon bouquet was well made and we were happy with the order.
“Probably like most people, we kept the arrangement for a few days and planned to throw the balloons away once they started to shrivel up.”
Earlier this week, Tina’s children were playing with the largest ball in the exhibit – which contained several smaller ones.
She continued: “My son took him with him into the bedroom…and suddenly we heard a LOUD explosion and the force shook our house.
“We even saw a bit of a spark/fire with the boom. We rushed to check it out and pieces of balloon were everywhere.
“Some stuck to the ceiling and some melted onto the floor tiles.
“Miraculously they missed my son’s eyes and face and the only injury he suffered was a slight burn to his forearm from the melted ball that landed on him.
Naturally, when Tina placed the order, she assumed the balloons were filled with helium.
But after messaging the seller to complain, the mum discovered they had been inflated with hydrogen and staff members had forgotten to put a warning tag on the outside.
The mother continued: “We discovered that if hydrogen was used to inflate the balloon, it could react with oxygen along with friction to create energy.
“The big balloon had tiny balloons inside which was a recipe for disaster.
“The friction could have triggered the explosion plus the oxygen/hydrogen leak.
“No spark or flame needed. It’s a ticking time bomb if enough friction is made.
“So the main purpose of this article is to warn parents not to let their children play with these kinds of balloons unless it is you who have inflated it with your own breath or balloon pump.
“As innocent as these balloons are, we don’t know what kind of gas they used to inflate them.”
Needless to say, other parents were grateful for the warning.
“You would never know unless you were told or worked with the objects,” one replied. “I hope everyone is doing well. What a scare that would have been.”
“It would never even have crossed my mind that a different gas could be used,” added another. “Thanks for the information.”