Aluminum is weird stuff, for a metal. All my experience comes from silversmithing, and I modified a piece of aluminum just once.
I say it like that because someone wanted an aluminum object altered, and you can barely use any of the same techniques that apply to silver, because it's surprisingly brittle, and melts at about 1100-1200F. For comparison, most steels melt at around 2600F. Sterling silver bends and moves like pie dough, and hits its melt phase at about 1450F, so even the high end of aluminum is super low at 1200. I couldn't heat that aluminum bracelet without fear of destroying it, so I worked it - very gently - cold.
A quick search tells me that the hottest part of a candle flame can be well over 2000F, which is plenty to melt even a tough aluminum alloy at a very short exposure.
The nice thing is that, like most metals, aluminum will oxidize and melt well before it burns. The combustion temperature in air is well over 3000F.
For what it's worth, I've also never heard of anyone being poisoned by aluminum exposure, which I cannot say of other common metals (copper).
So, as scary as that is, I kinda doubt the aluminum itself is putting you in more danger. (But still, all the sympathies, and you did the right thing.)
I hope the new year is much kinder than the old, candle flames notwithstanding.
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I say it like that because someone wanted an aluminum object altered, and you can barely use any of the same techniques that apply to silver, because it's surprisingly brittle, and melts at about 1100-1200F. For comparison, most steels melt at around 2600F. Sterling silver bends and moves like pie dough, and hits its melt phase at about 1450F, so even the high end of aluminum is super low at 1200. I couldn't heat that aluminum bracelet without fear of destroying it, so I worked it - very gently - cold.
A quick search tells me that the hottest part of a candle flame can be well over 2000F, which is plenty to melt even a tough aluminum alloy at a very short exposure.
The nice thing is that, like most metals, aluminum will oxidize and melt well before it burns. The combustion temperature in air is well over 3000F.
For what it's worth, I've also never heard of anyone being poisoned by aluminum exposure, which I cannot say of other common metals (copper).
So, as scary as that is, I kinda doubt the aluminum itself is putting you in more danger. (But still, all the sympathies, and you did the right thing.)
I hope the new year is much kinder than the old, candle flames notwithstanding.