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MacBook Battery Suspected in Australian Fire

By Joseph S. Enoch
ConsumerAffairs.com

March 14, 2007

Photo posted by mattyb on MacTalk

It was 3 a.m. when Matty's screaming housemate and barking dog startled him out of bed.

Smoke was filling his Australian home and the smell of burning plastic clung to everything. Matty ran into his lounge -- the source of the commotion. That's when he saw the fire.

At first he thought a lamp had set the fire, or maybe the drapes. But when he rushed to extinguish the insistent flames, he saw that it was his MacBook that had combusted.

Matty swung his MacBook through the air until the flames died. He then extinguished the nearby smoldering stack of magazines and his charred bookcase.

Matty is "mattyb," a member of the Australian Macintosh fan forum, "MacTalk." He refers to himself as 'Matty' in his story of the burning Macintosh laptop which he posted two days ago.

Matty said he is positive his battery was the source of the fire.

"The battery is swollen and burnt so it's definitely the battery that exploded and caught fire," Matty wrote. "The MacBook is melted on the bottom and severely charred (along with my bookshelves, books, magazines and the wall). The space bar is melted as is the track pad. The screen has been damaged a little too."

This past summer saw the recall of millions of Sony-manufactured batteries, including 1.8 million that were used in Apple laptops.

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Matty said his laptop was not included in the recall but said his battery started acting unusual about three weeks ago.

"I have noticed for the past 3 weeks the battery life has been poor. I was only getting an hour to an hour and a half from it (compared to over 3 hours)," Matty wrote. "I also notice the battery symbol had an X showing a couple of times but a restart would sort that out. One last thing I noticed over the last few days was when the battery was fully charged and on the power, it would flicker between 99% and 100% constantly. Nothing would fix this."

This recent battery fire highlights the continued concern over the safety of Lithium-ion batteries which are used in many portable devices including laptops, cell phones and mp3 players.

Lithium ion batteries contain a lot of power in a very small package making them particularly prone to combustion, according to a government report.

"You have to pack more and more energy into a small package, and when you're doing that you're really creating a little bomb, especially when the battery is fully charged," said Carl Hilliard, president of the Wireless Consumers Alliance, a nonprofit organization that has tallied several incidents involving people injured by exploding cell phones.

Apple did not return phone calls and Matty did not return an e-mail.

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