Laptop fire blamed for Vancouver death

An overheated laptop computer left on a couch caused a fire that killed a 56-year-old Vancouver man, the Coroners Service of British Columbia has concluded.
The fire took place six months ago, but the victim's name has not been released.

The rest of the story on CBC.CA

Scary stuff.
I always leave my laptop in sleep when I'm not using it and on a table or desk.

The battery is dangerous in laptops.

This year HP has a recall on batteries. Other manufacturers had also recalls:

2007: Acer recalled 27,000 laptop batteries for overheating
2006: Sony recalled over 9.6 million laptops due to overheating concerns
2005: Apple recalled 128,000 laptop batteries for reports of overheating

i remember the sony recall. my friend had one, he said the thing would make buzzing noises and stuff.

as for the fellow in canada. thats just a shame.

That would be something for your computer to burn your house down and kill you!

a friend had a car battery blow up in his face a few weeks back. he was lucky, though.
- and yes, it does make one wonder.

There are reports of fires on-board of aircrafts caused by the laptop batteries.

The Airline Pilots Association International (ALPA), the largest pilot's union in the world, has called for a federal ban on the shipment of lithium batteries on both passenger and cargo aircraft. ALPA contends that the current guidelines for shipping these batteries on aircraft are insufficient to ensure the safety of flying with them, as evidenced by recent inflight fires including one on a Federal Express aircraft en-route to the Twin Cities. The union is calling for a ban to be instituted now and remain in effect until new stronger rules are in place.

While lithium batteries are used in laptop computers, cameras, flashlights and cell phones, ALPA is not requesting a ban on items carried onto flights by travelers. Rather, they are primarily concerned about the transporting of larger quantities of the batteries as cargo.

There have been three incidents in the last two months of fires on-board aircraft. In addition to the Federal Express fire on a Indianapolis to Minneapolis/St. Paul cargo flight, there were fires on aircraft in the Dominican Republic and Honolulu. The FedEx fire was reported during approach at about 5 a.m. on August 7. The fire was quickly controlled and there were no injuries as the aircraft landed safely.

In 2006 a battery-induced fire on a DC-8 aircraft in Philadelphia led to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommending federal regulations be instituted on these types of cargo. Mark Rogers, director of ALPA's Dangerous Goods Programs, said, "The evidence is mounting . We need an immediate ban on these dangerous goods to protect airline passengers, crews and cargo." ALPA has been asking the Department of Transportation (DOT) to take action about this situation since 2004.