A near bizarre disaster!

[Conquistador_del_mar]

This afternoon, I was about ready to close my garage door and leave when I smelled smoke. It smelled like burning leaves, but I live in the city so I didn't figure anyone was burning leaves so went outside the garage and the smell was gone. I then followed the smoke smell only to find something absolutely bizarre! I had a box of stuff that I was going to give away including a makeup mirror. Apparently, the mirror was in the box with the concave side pointing just perfectly for the sun to reflect the concentrated beam back to the box and it almost started a fire. The box is next to my charcoal!! I dowsed it with water and noticed the larger hole had been burned on another day. There are 3 holes as you can see with the smallest one done today. I had dinner at a restaurant tonight where I ran into a friend who restores burned businesses and residences for a living so I told him the story. He said in all his years, he has never heard of something like that and if it had burned down my garage, the investigators would probably never have guessed what started the fire. How strange is that? Bill

[Ghost]

That's crazy. Not to mention, I bet the investigators not only wouldn't have figured it out, but there's the risk that depending on other factors, they would not have believed it was as innocent as that.

Glad you caught it.

[BUIZILLA]

my shop is next to a busy body shop... about 2 years ago they had a 4Runner towed in with a minor interior fire... turns out the lady left a makeup mirror on the front seat and the reflection started the fire...

2 weeks ago I went out in my garage at home and smelled something burning around the work bench, after searching for about 30 minutes I discovered the 110v power pack for the security camera's recorder was HOT, and overheating, and starting to smoke... had I not found that I am certain we would have had a HUGE problem on our hands.... :shocking:

[Morgan's Cloud]

:eek: Talk about being in the right place at the right time ! !

That is a one in a million shot , good thing your sniffer still works .. Whenever I have a cold (rarely) I'm paranoid until I can smell again .

Had an incident a few years back where the hot wire to the closet water heater had not been tightened correctly after some maint work. I only use the heater on demand and had powered it on and was going to go out for a bit while it heated up. I noticed a strange electrical burning odor after coincidentally delaying my departure . When I had located the source of the smell the wire was starting to glow... Another lucky break .

I presume the makeup kit/mirror wasn't yours personally ? :kingme:

[gcarter]

"I presume the makeup kit/mirror wasn't yours personally ?" :kingme:

Of course! The "Conqueror of the Seas" doesn't use make up!

Bill, you were lucky! I think there was two things in your favor;

The period of time in which it would actually "align" and do damage was probably pretty short.
Cardboard doesn't burn very well.
Otherwise, you'd probably be posting a different story.

[olredalert]

-----Bill,,,I had an electrical fire in my shop just over a year ago. Fire started somewhere inside the wall as close as we could tell. Two cars and my dually Suburban all succumbed to the intense heat (1800 degrees according to the fire chief). Everything inside the building was ruined in bizarre ways. Every piece of chrome bit the dust and every bare piece of metal was badly rusted, but the buildings shell was intact thanks to the quick actions of the Fire dept. My 4ft. by 4ft DONZI dealer hanging sign was a puddle of plastic on top of my workbench. I was told that all the plastic when super heated gives off really bad fumes. None of the vehicles had fire insurance. Qiute a lesson, that I still havent gotten completely over. Just trying to say to all,,,Be very careful as a serious fire will change your life and not in a good way.......Bill S

-----Bill,,,Package came today. Thanks!!!

[Conquistador_del_mar]

I suppose you could consider it lucky that I figured it out before a fire actually started. I consider myself very cautious, but this one was not something you could foresee. I find it interesting to hear about the interior car fire caused by the same thing. Do they put warnings on the makeup mirrors? As a kid, I started fires with magnifying glasses like every other kid, but I am surprised the makeup mirros have so much power -:boggled:.

[scippy]

Bill,

Could it be a figurative sign?.....a metaphorical analogy......from the used boat Gods?
"Money burning holes in your pocket".....get it?..but seriously, thank God nothing came
of it..........In all my years of firefighting, I also have never come across something like
this. True to the triangle of fire though, all the right elements of combustion were there
heat, oxigen & fuel.

[Bob]

My girlfriend in college left a mirror face up in a box in the back seat. The sun hit it just right and lit the headliner on fire.

[silverghost]

Years ago a neighbor of mine left her perscription glasses resting on her car's front seat armrest.
The armrest was in the folded own position ;and her car had a cloth interior. All car widows were closed.
Mid afternoon the seat back caught fire and gutted the front half of the car's interior before the smoke itself choke-out the fire.
The perscription glasses started the fire according to the local fire marshall.

[Conquistador_del_mar]

So some of you guys have heard of similar incidents - interesting! It dawned on me that even the focal point of the reflection had to be at just the right distance within a small tolerance to allow the box to burn. It just amazes me that all the elements were there for producing a fire when it was random placement. It would take a little time to set it all up to recreate the incident. I now wonder if any arson fires have ever been intentionally set using this type rigging.
Skippy, I doubt that metaphorical gods were trying to tell me something, but I do listen to guardian angels and phenomenological whisperings if that counts (seriously). Bill

[Greg Guimond]

olredalert,
Your post is making me think. Should a seperate rider be purchased for fire on cars and boats? Why was it not covered under homeowners? We store some of our stuff at home and some at an offsite storage spot. Between "Irene" and Bill narrowly missing a disaster just figured I would ask the question........?

[olredalert]

----Greg,,,Unfortunatly, my particular policy covered the contents of the building but did not cover the vehicles within. Another steep learning curve that Im hoping I have surpassed......Bill S