- Fire officials have urged drivers not to leave plastic water bottles inside hot cars
- The sunlight refracts off the plastic and water to create ‘magnifying glass effect’
- This then creates a powerful beam of light which is powerful enough to start fire
Fire officials in Florida have urged drivers not to leave plastic water bottles inside hot cars because they may catch fire.
The unusually warning comes after a string of social media videos which show how the seemingly harmless objects could set light to upholstery.
In the videos, firefighters explain how the sunlight refracts off the plastic and water to create a ‘magnifying glass effect’.
Fire officials in Florida have urged drivers not to leave plastic water bottles inside hot cars because they may catch fire
This creates a powerful beam of light which is powerful enough to start a fire, NOLA.com reports.
Firefighters in Oklahoma showed how this laser-like beam can reach 250 degrees Farenheit, KFOR reported last month.
In Idaho, a power company posted a Facebook video in which a technician shows how sunlight through a water bottle burned holes in the seat of his car.