Phenom

[kunes]

Yesterday morning I went out the front door to get the mail. I detected the faint smell of smoke. I didn't think much about it figuring it was my neighbor burning some branchs that washed up on the beach. A while later I was walking past a window and I noticed a faint wisp of smoke drifting past my field of view. Beings it was right next to the house I figured it would be wise to investigate. On the yard below was an area 18" by 3' wide that was charred and smoldering. The only cause I could think of was combustion caused by the heat. Today as I went out to get the mail--about the same time as yesterday--I had a thought.

On the back of the house is one of those all glass solariums. I went out and looked and the sun was just getting to the point that is was going thru the curved glass portion where the roof meets the wall.



I looked down and sure enough the sunlight was striking the ground where the scorch mark from yesterday was. In the pic you can see that the sun coming thru, or reflected off, of the solarium is hitting the ground at the end of the mark where the fire started as determined by wind direction.



Just thought this might be mildly interesting.

[CrappieLips]

Kunes;; Your own house window's are a fire hazzard! yike's!!

[David Waters]

this is very interesting. How do you plan to fix that?

[kunes]

Those solariums look nifty on a house and may be a good idea in, oh say---Wisconsin, but in the south they just get too hot. I already have plans to rip it out and build a more conventional sun room.

[papasage]

i had a customer in the late 60`s had a headlinner burnt from a mirrow laying in the back of his car .he tried to blame it on his boy`s frinds as they wer using the car the day befor and found a old cigratt lighter in it . it did`t have any fluid in it and havent had in a while . a jug of water will do it to ..
it would do it again if the sun was bright on dry grass when the sun angle changed enough to hit the dry grass.

[shadow]

Kunes, looks like you are making a distress call to BATMAN to me! LOL!
Seriously though, good thing you noticed that, it could have been a real hazard.

[crap-king]

it was so hot here in Winston-Salem on Wednesday I though my drawers was on fire!!!

[kunes]

it was so hot here in Winston-Salem on Wednesday I though my drawers was on fire!!!

I hear hoochie coochie girls can cause the same problem

[big "E"]

Damn that does look like batman's distress signal.I feel a new knickname coming on.

[fiddlefarter]

Put a sprinkler on it and dampen it up a little. I always disagreed with the theory of mulch "spotaneous combustion". I spread more mulch than most people will see in their lives and maintained it year-round at 50+ restraunts plus apartments and other businesses for 8 years and never saw any catch fire alone. It gets hot in a big pile but IMO not hot enough to catch when spread on the ground. So I'm glad to see it was the "ant under the micrscope" and you found it so you'll be aware of it.