A safety igniter for flares is attachable to the flare parachute by a lanyard that operates the igniter when the parachute opens. The igniter is packaged in a housing that is mounted into the flare casing adjacent the ignition surface of the flare candle. The housing has two contiguous bores of different diameters, the larger bore containing a primer-charge holder and a firing-pin holder, both of which are movable in the bore. The primer-charge holder is retained adjacent the shoulder at the juncture of the bores, so that its motion is rotational only; while that of the firing-pin holder is primarily a forceful axial motion produced by the parachute lanyard, to which it is operatively attached. The primer charge is normally out of angular alignment with the firing pin and the chamber in the housing containing a pyrotechnic charge, but is aligned with a dead-air chamber. However, means for rotating the primer-charge holder is actuated in response to axial motion of the firing-pin holder, so that the primer charge is brought into alignment with the firing pin and pyrotechnic charge before it is struck by the firing pin. In one embodiment, all three of these items are normally mutually out of angular alignment, so that the firing-pin holder must also be rotated. When the firing pin strikes the primer charge, it discharges into the pyrotechnic material which, in turn, discharges hot gases onto the ignition surface of the flare candle.