NORTHFIELD — The Fire Department and mutual aid partners quickly knocked down a Main Street structure fire on Wednesday morning, which had a potentially unusual cause — the sun.

Firefighters responded to 83 Main St. at around 10:42 a.m. and saw flames on the exterior siding of the house, according to Fire Chief Floyd “Skip” Dunnell III. A first alarm was struck to call in mutual aid, but between the homeowner throwing some water on the fire, as well as the efforts of Northfield firefighters, the blaze was quelled, resulting in minor damage to the house and no injuries.

When investigating whether the fire’s cause was electrical, Dunnell said investigators determined it to be a “natural accident” stemming from the porch.

“We believe it was sunlight hitting a glass jar on the porch that had solar lights,” Dunnell said, adding that it was a “magnification prism effect from the glass jar that caught some dead flowers that were in a planter” on fire.

While certainly unusual, Dunnell said he has “seen similar kinds of stuff” previously and there were no other sources of ignition present.

It’s a rare occurrence, but other glass items and the sun have caused fires in the past. In 2021, a Delton, Wisconsin, home was severely damaged by a fire stemming from sunlight passing through an ornamental crystal ball, according to the community’s fire department. In September 2023, sunlight passing through a glass prism lit some clothes on fire in the English city of Norwich, according to the Norwich Evening News, the community’s news website.

“It was a bright sunny day and the sun was concentrating there,” Dunnell said of the Northfield fire. “We’re pretty well-determined it was the prism effect. … The conditions were just right and there was the dead vegetation in the planter.”

Chris Larabee can be reached at clarabee@recorder.com.