Ricki Lake lost more than her home to the Palisades fire. Mementos, including family photographs, perished in the January blaze that devastated California.

But thanks to a strange turn of events and the kindness of a stranger, the “Hairspray” actress and former talk show host was reunited with copies of precious photos that were discovered at a flea market.

Artist Patty Scanlon bought a box of photos for $20 at the Pasadena City College Flea Market on Sunday that included pictures of Lake, 57, and her son, Milo -- now 28 -- when he was a baby.

“I just thought, ‘Oh, that woman’s beautiful and I love her vibe,” Scanlon said, adding that the face in the snapshots looked familiar. “I’m looking at this woman, who I think is really cool and soulful, and I thought, ‘I think this is Ricki Lake.”

Scanlon’s instincts were correct. And she wanted to connect with Lake to return her photos.

“I’m in show business because I’m an actor too, so I went on Facebook and said, ‘Do any of you know how to get in touch with Ricki Lake?’” Scanlon said. “And I posted a few of the pictures and then, like in two seconds — two seconds — there was Ricki Lake."

Ricki Lake went on Instagram on Monday to share the “craziest” story of how Scanlon had found her old family photos “at a freaking flea market.”

“I can’t even process” this, Lake said in a video. “My words are not coming.”

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing because all of it was gone in the fire.”

While Lake lost many of her photos when her Malibu home she shared with husband Ross Burningham was destroyed, this group of pictures was accompanied by an envelope and a letter that was a thank-you letter to a friend for gifts that were mailed to Milo when he was a toddler.

The envelope had a New York City return address for Lake.

“These pictures are so priceless to me,” Lake said in a video she filmed with Scanlon. “They would be anyway ... but the fact that I lost all of these images in the fire in January ... I thought they were gone forever.”

Lake said she particularly mourned the loss of photos of her sons, including Owen, now 24, when they were young.

“I had made peace. It was such a heartache and such a painful thing to come to terms with,” she said. “That all of these memories are no longer in front of me. They’re just in my mind and heart now. But the fact that you found these is unbelievable.”

It was unclear how the photos wound up at a flea market, but Scanlon believes they may have been relocated after an estate sale.

“It was like it was meant to be,” Scanlon said. “It’s like this thing in the universe that said, ‘You’re going to get those photos, and you’re going to give them to Ricki. It’s like the Twilight Zone but an upbeat one.”

“I really cannot thank you enough for your generosity,” Lake told Scanlon. “The fact that I’m going to get something back that I thought was lost forever ... it makes me so happy.”

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