Scripture to Live By:But let all who
take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy, and spread your protection over them, that those who love your name may exult in
you. Psalm 5:11
But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory, by Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19
Helpful Tip: Last Sunday morning, this was the setting of our sun room. I was plucking some facial hair off, before going to church. I was using a hand mirror with a magnifying side to see the hair better. The mirror had a non-magnifying side, as well. If you look closely you can see the mirror sitting on the coffee table, where I left it sitting, when I was finished with it. But little did I know, when I left the mirror on the table that I could have caught my house on fire.
My husband and I were enjoying our sun room, a few days later, because the sun was warming the room nicely, even though the temperature out side was in the 30 degree range, it was really nice in the sun room.
Little did we know that a magnifying mirror, reflecting onto a couch, could magnify the sun temperature to such a degree that it could catch something on fire.
As you can see in this picture, the sun is hitting the mirror which is producing a reflection of the sun onto the couch. Through the magnifier the sun is hotter than it would be normally. It produces heat hot enough to start a fire.
But I want to show you what can happen. We certainly got the shock of our lives.
Now I do not know how long it took for the sun’s reflection to actually start a fire, but we found out that we could only hold our hand in front of the mirror reflecting the sun for about 15 seconds, until it burned our hand.
My sofa now has a burn spot on it that is about 3″ by 2 1/2 inches.
I am so thankful that we went into the sun room and discovered what was happening. My husband had smelled something burning, and looked to see if he could see anything earlier, but didn’t see anything, in possible areas where a fire could start. We had no idea that a mirror could start a fire. We do not think a plain mirror would have produced the same results, but the magnifier on the one side magnified the heat of the sun.
Please be aware of possible things that can start fires. We had a house fire many years ago, and just let me say, you do not want the work that a house fire creates, nor the devastation. Had we not been home this could have been worse.
I am glad I can reupholster this cushion. Such a minor cost in the realization of how much worse it could have been.
So if you have a hand held mirror that has a magnifier on one side, you do not want to leave it sitting on a table where the sun can hit the mirror and reflect the sun on something that can catch fire. I would recommend that you put the mirror away out of any possible sunlight hitting it.
What a lesson I have learned from this incident.
Had the couch smoldered until we went to bed we could have not only lost our home but our lives as well. We are one thankful couple.
I am sharing this to prevent this from happening to any of you.
Blessings to each of you,
