[Her memory makes Jetfire chuckle as well, and he nods.]

I believe we have something similar as well. They haven't been used in a long while, as they were for celebrations like the lanterns you mention are, but they functioned in the same way, if made in other... ah, materials.

And as for what lights things here... Electricity is a form of energy, like heat.

[Extremely simplified, but hopefully that would work, and it was very difficult to keep it as simple as he just had.]