Dog Bowl Starts A Fire?

"The couple didn’t realize the dog bowl had started the fire on their deck until an engineer with the fire department took a look at the situation. He explained that sunlight had refracted off the bowl and ignited the fire on the side of their house."

I like watching survival shows. I like Les Stroud in Survivorman, for example. In one episode, he used a polished soda pop can bottom in the sun to focus light onto some tinder, and he started a fire. In Dual Survival, they used a plastic bag of urine to start a fire, making a type of lens. So, I completely understand how a dog bowl could reflect and focus sunlight to start a fire. They are lucky the dog alerted them.

My bigger question is why was the dog bowl left in the direct sunlight? I have seen numerous dog bowls left in the sunlight, making the water so hot that the dog couldn't drink it... and in the meantime the dog was overheating.

Now I have a new thing to teach people about managing their dogs.