PowerBook explodes in London office

[PBS Poll-435]

Flames leap "six feet high"

By Paul Hales
The Inquirer
Thursday, 26 February 2009, 15:27


STAFF IN THE London office of a marketing company were left shocked and reeling yesterday after an Apple PowerBook burst into flames.

The company asked not to be identified, as IT manager Steven told how he was called to the scene by reports of smoke billowing out of an employee's computer.

"When I got there, much of the smoke has dissipated and nothing much was happening. I picked up the notebook to investigate, and turned it over. Soon after I put it down again, it basically exploded. Flames we flying six foot in the air, and sparks," he told the INQ.

"I saw that the smoke was coming out of the battery I was worried about the chemicals in the battery so I told everyone to got out of the office" "So then I was stood there wondering what to do with the laptop when suddenly a fire started and flames started coming out of the battery."

[enlightenment]

1. Lucky he didn't lose a hand or an eye.

Nasty.

[tridim]

2. Impossible, Apples are perfect.

[PBS Poll-435]

13. Does one bad Apple spoil the bunch?

:hide:

[HereSince1628]

3. One thing I NEVER feared was that my slide rule would start on fire.

I wonder if anyone ever had an abacus burst into flame?

[Deja Q]

6. No, but if we pinched your fingers with it, you wouldn't be able to use it...

I also have a can of termites conveniently handy too... :D

[ColbertWatcher]

9. Ha! But can your slide rule get you free porn!? Huh? Huh!? n/t

[Deja Q]

11. Talk about 'spanking the money' or 'slapping the salami'...

:hide:

[HereSince1628]

27. But, who needs porn when you can put the slide to work?

[slampoet]

29. Yet Somehow, in the hands of a Nun, that Slide Rule was a deadly weapon.

[aquart]

4. It is absolutely wrong to react with raucous laughter.

I know that.

[Deja Q]

5. I hope they purchased AppleCare...

I also wonder where the battery was made and if Apple will spearhead a battery recall -- Sony and Dell had to do this several months ago...

[tridim]

16. I bet the Macheads just claim that their computers double as charcoal starters

and that it's something that PCs can't do. ;)

[Deja Q]

18. Actually

For some time, Dell was known for making laptops that, if you had the laptop on your lap, would sterilize you - or use it upside down and broast a chicken boobie in 20 minutes...

And Sony, followed by HP and Dell, did massive recalls on their laptop batteries due to explosion risk. Roughly 18 months ago. One of Sony's went off, but Dell and HP I think were preemptive for safety's sake...

[ColbertWatcher]

7. Batteries are trying to kill us all! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! n/t

[cliffordu]

12. The first salvo in the annihilation of humans by the machines...

The Terminator........

[originalpckelly]

8. Lithium-polymer batteries do this when they're overcharged.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_polymer_battery

[Deja Q]

15. Dang, let's be grateful they didn't use lithium ion:

The advantages of Li-poly over the lithium-ion design include lower cost manufacturing and being more robust to physical damage

Ironic. But then, an explosion would rather do both in...

[marmar]

10. ..........

I'm a :nuke:, and I'm a PC......

[ColbertWatcher]

23. LOL! n/t

[Sebastian Doyle]

14. Well, that settles it. Go Linux!

Can't trust that damn proprietary Apple hardware. Go with the Penguin!

[TroglodyteScholar]

21. The penguin is cute and all...

...but I seriously doubt that an operating system will protect anyone from defective hardware.

[Gman]

25. Same thing happened to some Dells a couple years ago

[Bake]

30. Are you kidding? It was the evil OS code that told the battery when to blow!

:rofl:

Bake

[TroglodyteScholar]

31. That diabolical OS!

:crazy::crazy::crazy:

[Gman]

17. Get a PC

[Deja Q]

19. The Asus G50Vt-X5 is an absolutely splendid notebook...

:9

The X1 is a tad older, but otherwise has the same specs where it counts the most (and a slightly faster CPU)...

[TahitiNut]

20. If it were a PC laptop, the flames would only be 4 ft. high.

:evilgrin:


:hide:

[fascisthunter]

24. lol...

[Matariki]

22. Well, that's a HELL OF A LOT LESS SCARY than this:

http://i.gizmodo.com/5157354/boy-killed-anally-when-office-chair-explodes

Boy Killed Anally When Office Chair Explodes

Well, stories don't get much worse than this. A 14-year-old boy in China was killed when his chair exploded, sending chunks of metal into his rectum. The bleeding this caused killed him.

The alleged explosion came from the gas cylinder that was in the base of the chair, the part that allowed the user to adjust the seat up and down. The canister gets compressed when you sit on it, but can it actually create enough energy to make the seat cushion explode like that and kill a man? I doubt it, but this is what people are reporting.

[NeedleCast]

26. So...I'm going to go stand up for a little while

and by "little while" I mean forever.

[Marrah_G]

28. I am SO sending this to mythbusters

They would love this.