What happens if I knock a lamp over? oil lamps safety Our lamps are very stable and rarely knocked over. As you have seen from the above pictures, they will stand quite a fall and are therefore very unlikely to break the oil reservoir if knocked over. Below we have knocked over a candle to demonstrate that the flame normally goes out and very little fuel escapes from the candle (even less with our anti-spill models). If the candle falme does not go out, it will burn quietly and will not flare or flash because the fuel has a very high flashpoint, which makes it very safe. Go on. Push it! It's gone out.