Bonfire of the Vanities?
A British couple are warning the public to avoid exposing reflective surfaces to direct sunlight after a small vanity mirror placed too close to a window sparked a fire in their home.
“This is not something you could ever imagine,” Sam Wilkinson, 48, told Southwest News Service about the freakishly devastating blaze that broke out at his Rochester, Kent, home on July 18.
A registered nurse and her partner, Michael, noticed an unusual odor while at home.
“I was working in the office directly below the room where the fire started and I could smell something burning, like burnt toast,” Michael recalls. “I went downstairs to check if the fans were overheating and to see if anyone was cooking, and then I heard the fire alarm on the top floor.”
In a panic, Michael ran upstairs to wake Sam, after which the couple ran out of the house and phoned emergency services.
Two fire engines arrived and extinguished the blaze on the third floor, and firefighters also managed to rescue the family’s cat, Tigger.
Thankfully, the blaze was largely contained by the door being closed, although much of the damage was done to the bedroom, including a melted television and blackened walls.
This prevented it from spreading to other parts of the residence.
It was then that firefighters discovered the surprising cause of the blaze: sunlight reflecting off a small vanity mirror had ignited the curtains in the couple’s room.
“I had just redecorated my room a few days prior so I had no idea what was going on,” Sam said. “When the firefighters said it was a mirror I thought, how could a mirror do that?”
She added: “We now know that any reflective or shiny object near a window where sunlight hits it can be a fire hazard.”
The couple were sharing their ordeal “to keep others safe and to remind everyone to keep reflective objects away from windows and out of direct sunlight,” Sam said.
“Our advice is [is to] “Just be careful and educate your family about the risks,” her husband agreed. “It’s a small, preventable thing, but it can have devastating effects.”
