A Mac user has shared a video of his 2015 MacBook Pro catching fire during what he says was normal use. The cause of the fire is likely the laptop’s lithium battery.
DJ “White Panda” says the notebook suddenly “exploded and burst into flames” on Tuesday during normal use.
Yesterday afternoon my MacBook Pro exploded during normal use. It was on my lap, plugged in, and suddenly started to spew smoke out both sides. I quickly placed it on the floor where it popped, the smoke increased, and it caught fire. Toxic smelling smoke filled my house triggering smoke and CO alarms. No one was injured, thankfully, but there was some damage to my home. The situation could have been much worse – imagine if I had been on a plane.
Two repairs to the MacBook Pro’s display and trackpad had been performed by Apple under warranty, but the notebook has never had any third-party repairs and has no aftermarket parts, he says.
My MacBook Pro exploded today during normal use. No injuries, luckily. Some damage to the house. Could have been worse – good thing I wasn’t on a plane.
Very curious to see how @Apple responds.@MacRumors @TechCrunch @9to5mac pic.twitter.com/pjmpv5Mx9b
— White Panda (@whitepanda) May 29, 2019
White Panda says he was able to move the “scalding hot” MacBook to his porch by using gloves. After the notebook cooled, he took it to his local Apple Store. The folks at the store told him nothing could be done until the device spent 24 hours in a fire-proof safe and that “they’d call me with a plan/update.”
After not hearing back from them, he called the store, and was told the matter had been “escalated,” and that he should hear something within five days. WP was displeased, to say the least.
While occurrences like this are relatively rare, a small number of the millions of lithium-ion batteries produced by Apple can experience failure.
