Hate-hate-hate! (candles in the street)

This is probably some cultural thing and Finnish people won't understand me. Killeri sure didn't.

It's winter again, and many businesses, especially restaurants, are putting out lit candles. Not any candles, either: huge fucking lit candles. OK, I am not a candle person and don't like them in any place. That's not the point. I can understand that people who like candles might want to put them up at some reasonably safe place near the entrance. What I don't understand is why anyone wants, or why is it even allowed to put them in the middle of the sidewalk, especially at the time of the year when the sidewalks are so slippery.

I asked Killeri today and he basically told me that people are expected to avoid falling on candles in the street, which on a slippery sidewalk means that people are expected to walk around them far enough. OK, it's not hard to do - what I don't understand is why the pedestrians are expected to avoid candles on the sidewalk, as opposed as candle-putters being expected to avoid the pedestrians. How big a hazard can you put on a sidewalk and still get away with it? A campfire? A really big campfire? A bear trap?

These candles are usually huge things in a foil cup, which sort of make sure that if you fall on them, even if the fire gets extinguished by your fall and your clothes don't catch fire, you still got a liter of hot wax all over you.