Mystery burn to garden fence

Legacy_user

About 8am today, I wandered up the garden and noticed a burn hole at the bottom of a fence panel. It wasn't there on Friday when I did some potting on., so whilst we were in and out during Saturday it happened.

You will see from the pic, it is about 8" off the ground, it is circular and there was a pyramid of ash the other side. There is no visible smoke damage on either side, no evidence of cigarette (we don't smoke) or lighter smell. No glass in my garden could have created a prism. We do have solar lights but none could have caused this. In any case, the sun like shadows moves constantly so any heat would have been dispersed within seconds.

Intruders. On the left, the house was empty all day. On the right they had a barbarque which was controlled. Any floating piece of debris would have had to negotiate through trees, sail down between a shed, rubbish and land between to of the overlapping panels as the hole is burnt right through. Yes, there were visiting kids nextdoor, but there is no damage to my 7ft high hedge or shrubs on my side.

I phoned to ask the fire people if this was something they would wish to investigate. Because it looked like attempted arson, they said their roving officer would call. He discounted everything and felt it may have been done with a magnifying glass by an intruder. He said I should report it to the police and get a crime number just in case. I have done that. Look at the pic:-

Sagaris

Your link doesn't work? There is an extra 'http://' in the front, and when I remove that, it directs me to a http Google page.

PaulK_3

Proper link
Looks a bit dodgy that hole.

QQuaver

Looks a bit like your avatar:D
Could a car exhaust done it?

snails's_pace

a meteor maybe?....:D

System

I think I may have the answer. I took my magnifying glass to the panel and focused it. Within FIVE SECONDS smoke came and it left a scorch mark. I've tried it on various pieces of timber and the same happened. On hands & knees, I made my way through the chipped bark (laid for the ducks) and there was a piece of broken glass, about a foot away from the burn. I'm going back to put the glass down and see if I can reconstruct the burn. If this is so, it explains how low on the fence panel it was.

The point is, setting aside my calls this morning, how many times to you read/see/hear about fires which start accidental, via broken glass. Seeing this has made me more aware.

QQuaver

So leaving sunglasses inside the car is really bad idea:eek:

Lorian

QQuaver wrote: »

So leaving sunglasses inside the car is really bad idea:eek:

If its a sunny day for sure, you'll need 'em on your face :cool:

QQuaver

Lorian wrote: »

If its a sunny day for sure, you'll need 'em on your face :cool:

We don't get that(sun) often:rotfl: