laptop caught on fire!!

star882

Enlightened
Joined
Sep 7, 2002
Messages
527
Location
C:\\Program Files\\CPF
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=13&art_id=vn20030116054419424C831328
http://www.pimprig.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=3144
shocked.gif
shocked.gif

The 15-year-old daughter of a top foreign affairs official suffered severe burns when a laptop computer which is also used by her father exploded while she was working on it.

Nikita Sooklal, the daughter of Dr Anil Sooklal, foreign affairs deputy director-general for Asia and the Middle East, suffered second-degree burns on her hands and thighs and is being treated in the Little Company of Mary Hospital.

An investigation into the incident has been launched.

Foreign affairs spokesperson, Ronnie Mamoepa, said they would seek to determine what led to the explosion.

'It was about five minutes, and then it exploded'
Speaking in hospital, Nikita explained that she had asked her father if she could work on the Internet when he came home for lunch on Tuesday.

He had connected his laptop to the Internet at his home in Hatfield before returning to work.

"It was not on for long; it was about five minutes, and then it exploded," Nikita explained.

Her mother, Nelistra, who was upstairs, said: "It was a huge bang. I heard it while I was on the second floor.

"I ran down when I heard Nikita screaming. Her top was burning and the skin around her hands was hanging loose, clearly burned."

She added that she was very shocked and only later saw that the fire had also damaged the dining room.
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I think the battery failed and burst into flames.
To all modders using Li-ion batteries:
Make sure you use fuses or your flashlight may turn into a torch if it shorts out.
 
Good heads up post! I have heard of one incident that I am not at liberty to discuss where a flashlight containing a "protected" Li-Ion battery had a similar fate! Of course there are millions of Lap Tops and Cell Phones in use today but these systems were designed by folks who know what they're doing and protective circuitry is in place!

- Don
 
Oh come on, how can they print that much and not tell us what kind of a laptop it was! I remember a couple of historical cases, but nothing recent like this.

Somebody needs to review their QA...
 
sounds fishy to me.
i have seen 2 dell systems where the battery smoked and melted down but did not explode or ignite anything.
they had a bad batch they had to recall.
maybe someone packed in some silly putty to get the laptops owner?
 
Seems I recently saw recall (though I can't "recall" where I saw it - either on the web or Consumers Reports?...) about some laptops and/or their batteries causing fires...

** edit **
Just did a Google search for "laptop recall"...there are several including AC adapters and batteries...if I owned one, I'd check with the manufacturer.
 
Several computer manufacturers have had problems with their high-power-density batteries, and some have even been recalled not all that long ago. The computer in the news item could be one with an older battery ... Especially since this took place out of the US and recalls seldom go international, even when they should.
frown.gif


There have also been severe problems with some of the tiny cell phone batteries "designed by folks who know what they're doing" (Ericson, IIRC?) in the UK a few years ago. The lithium batteries were actually exploding while in use because of a very close clearance between power tabs that could sometimes become a negative clearance after being subjected to shocks. Those phones were recalled and taken off the market.

There was also a Canadian company in BC that was developing larger rechargable lithium packs, but they occasionally turned into grenades, and I haven't heard anything from that company for quite a while ...

tomsig01.gif


====
 
Originally posted by Tomas:
There have also been severe problems with some of the tiny cell phone batteries.....
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I find this especially disturbing. A cell phone is right in your face, near your eyes, etc

Brightnorm
 
Originally posted by McGizmo:
Of course there are millions of Lap Tops and Cell Phones in use today but these systems were designed by folks who know what they're doing and protective circuitry is in place!
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">20 years ago the PC industry started using Lithium batteries for clock and non-volatile memory backup and had a few problems. Since then everyone has been aware of how dangerous this can be if handled wrong. The batteries themselves contain protection against spontaneous total discharge, i.e., explosion.

The girl is lucky she didn’t loose any limbs or wasn’t killed by shrapnel. This is incredibly rare but catastrophic when it happens, especially with a high-energy notebook battery.
 
Maybe since it was a laptop belonging to a "top foreign affairs official" it was rigged (i.e. terrorist) to blow up?

This has been done in the past with cell phones. Then people were worried about cell phones exploding (on thier own) when the story everyone was referring to involved a cell phone with explosives planted inside the phone to kill the phone user.
icon15.gif


What a bad way to go!
 

Latest posts

Back
Top