A JOHNSTONE mum has told of her horror after a make-up mirror almost sparked a blaze in her home. 

Karen Gallacher thought her flat in Graham Street had been broken into last week when she returned to find a large burn mark on her window frame.

It was only after a friend searched the internet that she realised the sun’s rays hitting off a small mirror by her window had almost sparked disaster.

Karen, 43, told The Gazette: “Me and my friend sat at my bedroom window and applied our make-up before taking the kids and dog to Largs for a day at the beach.

“My father had a fall, so I didn’t come home until the next morning and that’s when I saw the damage to the window.

“I was scared someone had broken in and did it deliberately. I was ready to phone the police but nothing was missing or had been moved, so we figured it out before it came to that.

“My friend Googled ‘what could burn a window frame?’ and articles came up with burns identical to the one at my window. It blew me away that it was the mirror that did that.”

Following her close call, the mum-of-two is keen to warn others of the dangers.

She added: “I have two children and there is a newborn baby in the flat upstairs. I’m so relieved no harm has come to them.

“It is completely shocking that this could happen. There could have been a fire, so I just want to raise awareness.

“There was no smell of burning, that’s the strange thing. It was just the magnifying side sitting angled at the sunlight all day that caused it. You wouldn’t think the sun rays in Scotland could do that kind of damage.”

Make-up mirrors which have a magnifying side have sparked several fires over the years, including one in Brentwood, Essex, in 2018 which caused the roof of a five-bedroom home to cave in within minutes.

Closer to home, a student was left devastated after returning to her parent’s house in Perth to find a similar fire had destroyed family heirlooms in her childhood bedroom.