I got the wife a few fancy candles and 2 OK sized silver lanterns from next for her Christmas . She put a candle in the lantern and it worked great , but a bit messy with the molten wax. Last night , instead of putting 1 normal candle in the lantern she put 4 T lights in it , again it worked well . Tonight the brown stuff nearly hit the fan .. To keep the bottom of the lantern clean she put some tinfoil on the bottom of the lantern with 4 T lights , everything was fine for a couple of hours. I should have said at the start that the lantern sits on the marble hearth of the fire place , anyway , all of a sudden the lantern looked like it was one big flame , by the time I tried to smother it by blocking off the flue the glass broke with the heat and the flames where getting bigger , I managed to get the burning lantern outside without burning myself . I have an outside tap at the back door and a watering can , poured some water on the burning lantern and I myself , the flames shot up to a out 3 ft high by 2 ft wide , it nearly got me. Thank god I didn't put water on it indoors , I really think the house would have caught on fire. I'm now in bed and my heart is starting to slow down . Do it now ! Your a long time dead !!

Glad you're ok, tea lights are a menace, once melted they can quickly overheat and ignite, we had something similar years ago with an oil burner, cheap tea lights would burst into flames with the heat in a confined space.

i had a similar situation whilst caravanning in the cotswolds

sat outside and had 3 or 4 tea light candles burning on the floor, with a flatten can of lager as a wind break, all of a sudden the candles went up in flames and i could see it was the wax not the wick that was burning, I knocked the wind break can over and that did nothing, so i pour G&T on it and it swooshed up like a chip pan fire you see on TV Warning about putting water on them, the fireball must have been 2-3ft wide, bellowing up and scratching the camping table above  Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

Thanks for your input guys, I thought it was a mixture of the T light and the tinfoil , but you guys have confirmed it was the T lights .
Npinks that's exactly what happend when when I put water on it , in hindsight as you say the wax was burning , so yeas just like a chip pan fire.
I'm going out tomorrow to buy a fire extinguisher and a fire blanket. Do it now ! Your a long time dead !!

great idea, i have one in the kitchen, never know if or when you might need it  Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis