Dyan McGillivray was shocked when a mirror sitting in the sun scorched a hole through her bedding. Photo / Supplied
A former firefighter is urging people to be wary of leaving mirrors in the sun after a near-miss in his own home left his couch scorched.
Neville Brown, who was Waiheke Island’s deputy chief firefighter for 41 years, was a near victim of a similar circumstance to the fire that claimed the home of a Christchurch family last week.
Louise and Taylah Eder lost their home and two beloved pet dogs after a makeup mirror lying in the sun ignited their lounge.
Brown wants people to know these incidents happen “more often than you think”. His couch caught fire from a mirror reflection - in the midst of winter.
“The sun was really low, the rays caught on the mirror and burnt a line across the upholstered chair back. Fortunately, it never ignited [it was charred] but it taught us a lesson,” he said.
Brown was Waiheke Island’s deputy chief firefighter from 1966-2007. He knew about the risks of mirrors and had warned his wife about it in the past.
“My wife thought I was being a fuss pot, but when that happened it really brought it home that you cannot be too careful!” he said.
Brown wasn’t the only one; other people have recounted to the Herald how they were fortunate to avoid any major damage.
Julie Vaughan, from Wellington, said that just a few weeks ago a pair of Ugg boots nearly went up in flames.
“I’ve got one of those magnifying mirrors, a lot of women have them, and it was sitting on a ledge with sunlight magnifying onto it,” she said.
“I went to leave the house to pick my daughter up from school, and I thought I could smell something burning.”
After a quick look around the house, Vaughan thought everything was fine.
“I went and collected my daughter, was probably gone for about 40 minutes,” Vaughan said.
“My daughter instantly smelled it, she said something in my room was burning and I went into my room and sure enough my Ugg boots were sitting there smouldering.
“There was smoke actually coming out of my Ugg boot!”
Dyan McGillivray from Te Awamutu said a mirror burned a hole through a duvet, comforter, both sheets and her mattress protector.
“I just cannot believe it didn’t ignite the whole bed ... we were so lucky, when my husband got home, I just cried,” she said.
Insurance worker and mother-of-four, Reanna Kelly said her photo frame caught fire from a makeup mirror.
“It was a Sunday morning, we were about to leave for the day and I was coming up the hallway and was like ‘why can I smell smoke?’
“We came into the bedroom and on our windowsill, we have a family photo, and it was on a wooden frame,” she said.
“Smoke was just billowing off it.”
Kelly said had they not been home, it would have been “absolutely catastrophic”.
Kelly said in her time working in insurance, she’d dealt with a few claims relating to the same thing. She said it’s something there needs to be more education about.
Mother-of-two Melissa Moore believes all mirrors should come with a warning label. She too, feels lucky her house didn’t burn down as a result of a mirror.
“On this particular morning, I’d had the mirror in the lounge with the blinds open,” Moore said.
“The next minute [my husband] could smell something really weird … then he started to see smoke,” she said.
The sun had hit their mirror, which reflected onto the side of their couch and started a fire.
“If my husband hadn’t been there … my kids were upstairs sleeping … so it would have been an absolute disaster,” she said.
“I shudder to think what would have happened.”
She believed mirror suppliers have a responsibility to issue warnings - especially for magnified mirrors.
“People are naive, it’s not a widely known fact that they can cause such damage,” said Moore.
Specialist fire investigator Mitchell Jeffrey also wanted to remind people to keep magnifying mirrors out of sunlight.
“It is rare, but it is one of these things that do happen,” he said.