SW Bend residents awaken to small, ‘super-fluky’ fire sparked by concave makeup mirror focusing sunlight on paper bag
BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) – Residents of a southwest Bend home awakened Saturday morning to some smoke in their upstairs bedroom and found in the master bath a small fire that turned out to have a most unusual cause: a concave makeup mirror that reflected the focused heat of the rising sun onto a paper bag on the counter, igniting it.
Not knowing just what just had happened to spark the small fire, they quickly moved some nearby items, called 911 and evacuated the house. The fire mostly went out on its own, fortunately avoiding any serious damage, Deputy Fire Marshal Dan Derlacki said.
Bend Fire and Rescue was called to the home on Aster Lane around 7:40 a.m. Crews found the small fire on the bathroom counter that had not spread, Derlacki said. It had mostly self-extinguished.
"We traced it back the sun coming up and reflecting from a concave makeup mirror," he said. "The reflection landed on a paper bag on the countertop and ignited it. They were home at the time and caught it before it could go any further than the bag. We ventilated the house and were clear within 30 minutes.
"Lesson learned here is to keep make up mirrors pointed away from the sun, especially the morning sun that is down low and can reflect to the side, instead of downwards when the sun is higher," the fire official said.
"This is not a common fire cause, but I’ve seen this a few times before here in Bend," Derlacki added.
"They caught it so quickly," the fire hadn't put out enough smoke to activate the nearest smoke alarm in the master bedroom, Derlacki said. The damage might tally $100, from some cleaning up, he added.
To show the cause, Derlacki said the moved the mirror back into the sunlight for a photo. "The firefighter could only hold his hand there for a few seconds before it was too hot," he said.
It was "just a super-fluky fire," Derlacki said. "They did great, evacuated, didn't mess around with the thing. They were just waking up."
