'Realistic' Halloween decorations leave people divided

Halloween gives people a chance to exercise their grim sense of humor and fun a chance to get creative. However, one fan's decoration choice has sparked a debate on social media.

A brief clip on TikTok has been viewed more than 38 million times and shows the lengths one person went to create a terrifying atmosphere for the festive season.

The clip, from the outside, appears to show a raging fire inside a home, with a bright orange glow visible in all windows of the home's three floors.

However, the video clip also shows that this is actually an illusion and their home is completely fine.

The user shared the clip, and wrote: “My neighbor's Halloween decorations almost helped him put out the fire.”

The illusion appears to be created simply by using a series of orange lights, a fan and a sheet to blow around, which creates the appearance of fire and smoke inside the house.

Some found the Halloween decoration creative and praised the person for their dedication.

“This looks too realistic,” one user wrote, while another added: “Best Halloween decorations I’ve ever seen.”

However, others were less impressed and suggested it could even be dangerous.

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“What happens if your house is actually on fire and everyone just says ‘oh, that’s just a Halloween decoration.” one person wrote.

“That’s not Halloween décor, that’s tryna get 911 to ur house every 5 minutes,” another person commented.

“It looks very real, problem is if someone calls 999 and fire brigade turns up, it’s taking the fire brigade away from a real fire somewhere else.”

While it is not clear what city the Halloween enthusiast lives in, fire brigades have warned that false call outs can prove both costly and timely.

In 2018, the London Fire Brigade was called to 403 business more than 10 times during the past financial year, and these false alarm calls cost the bridge approximately £800,000. ($970,239).

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To combat this, they introduced a system that will see businesses receive a charge.

“The fines, implemented by the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA) will be set at £290 for over 10 false alarm call-outs and will not apply to domestic properties or care homes,” the fire department said on its website.

“When the fire brigade are rushing to a false alarm, they are wasting time that could be spent either attending real emergencies or increasing community safety, and it also reduces the amount of money the fire brigade can spend on training for their staff.”