Crystal ball causes flat to burn down

A fire sparked by a crystal ball caused a woman’s house to burn down in the UK. While the crystal ball was only worth about £20, the damage to the house was estimated at £10,000.

Kim Yeates, 53, bought the 4 inch crystal ball and placed it on her window sill, but the object refracted the sun’s rays onto her TV, which caused it to overheat and explode. The resulting fire spread to her sofa and soon her entire 1st floor flat was on fire, and her neighbor Neil Clarke alerted the firemen after initially thinking Kim was trapped in the flat.

Kim was away at the time, and returned home to find everything devastated.

“I’m completely devastated, ” she said.

“I used to love looking at the crystal ball and watching the sunlight come through it but I wish I had never bought it now.”

Firemen are totally surprised that something like this happened. “We do have incidences of this nature but it’s very uncommon for this to happen,” a fire services spokeswoman said.

So next time, if you do buy a crystal ball, make sure it doesn’t concentrate light onto somewhere flammable, and do remember, the sun’s position shifts throughout the year.

Source: The Sun UK