Dog bowl...... may have been cause of fire

The back of a Bellevue home is in charred ruins after a bizarre fire Sunday afternoon, when the temperatures were in the 70's.

Firefighters could trace the origin to one particular spot on the back deck.

"Investigators were able to narrow it down to one spot," said Lt. Eric Keenan with the Bellevue Fire Department. "But when they looked over that one spot, there's no electrical devices, nothing that would lead to an obvious cause."
BELLEVUE, Wash. - In science class we all learned how a magnifying glass can concentrate sunlight and start a fire. Fire investigators believe a sunlight shining through glass bowl full of water may have done the same thing.

The only thing sitting there was a glass dog bowl, full of water sitting on a wire rack on the wooden deck.

"When you look at that it may have actually had the optical qualities to act as a magnifying glass and under the midday sun start the deck on fire," says Keenan.

Lt. Keenan says he's never seen a house fire start this way before. The sunlight, the water, the glass and the wood decking would have to be aligned perfectly, but it appears that's exactly what happened.

"It's so unusual, it's really not reasonable to ask people to change their behaviors. If this was the cause it was just a really weird set of circumstances."

It was a devastating fire for the homeowners. It caused more than $200,000 worth of damage.

Dog Responsibly.....University of Doglando