I bet you’ve never thought about your crystals possibly burning your house down have you? You say “But this isn’t a ‘Harry Potter’ movie! Crystals don’t set things on fire!?!” Kim Yeates of Worle, Somerset in the UK would disagree with you.
Kim had a plain 4 inch glass crystal ball sitting on a window sill in her living room. The sunlight which was coming through the ball created refracted light beams, some of which were hitting the back of her television set. The telly got so hot from the light ray that it caught fire, or more to the point, apparently exploded, due to the overheating. Kim, who is 53 and lives along in her small flat, had the roughly $33 crystal ball on her window as a decoration (it doesn’t appear that it was for divination purposes) was out at the time when the fire occurred and came home to find over $16,000 of damage done. Kim says that she has no insurance and most of her property was ruined. She was reported as saying, “My life has been totally wrecked by this crystal ball. I’ve got no insurance and almost everything I owned was in the flat.” If it wasn’t for her neighbor, Neil Clarke and his partner Andrea Boardman ,who spotted the flames coming from the apartment and immediately set to alerting neighbors to get out of the building and getting emergency crews to help, the damage could have be devastating and far reaching beyond Kim’s flat alone.
damage from inside Kim’s living room/lounge
We often don’t even think of things like this. We put crystals, in all sorts of formations in our windows and on the sill because the refracted light can be so pretty and help being in manners of filtered and peaceful energy to a space. However this should be somewhat of a reminder to us to be aware of where those light rays hit each day and for how long. Much like the magnifying glass and sunlight being able to burn ants alive on the sidewalk (because who didn’t do that when they were a kid) the light coming through glass or crystal in your windows can cause just as much damage if the conditions are right.
Mood: thoughtful 
Oh that poor woman!! I try not to have anything near on my window sills for this very reason. You never know how something will magnify the rays of the sun. Even a glass of water on a window sill could be dangerous. I’m assuming it wasn’t a crystal ball that she would use for divination either since you really shouldn’t have those exposed to the sun. Once again, thanks for posting this Rowan. At least you know the people who read this will be thinking twice about what they put near their windows.
It is terrible! And honestly it’s something that you probably wouldn’t think about off the top of your head because we’re so more inclined to say “Wow that looks pretty in the sunlight” but forgetting that a certain spot might be 5 hours of sunlight and create some real heat! I hope she’s able to come back from this somehow.