Swede’s iMac proves nigh-invulnerable to house fire

John Brownlee ()

Swede’s iMac proves nigh-invulnerable to house fire

Swede and Apple enthusiast Anders Norman saw his every possession melted and charred in a cataclysmic home conflagration that gutted his entire apartment.

The only item left standing? His aluminum iMac: dirty, singed, partly melted, but still cheerily humming along.

According to Norman’s blog post (translated from Swedish):

Unfortunately, the whole house and all of my possessions were completely destroyed… except for my iMac. While it’s been damaged from smoke and dust, and while it is now partially melted, it still works!

After I plugged in the burned power cord and wiped soot off the screen, I pressed the melted start button, hoping for nothing. Imagine my surprise when the startup sound played from the speakers, the screen turned on and the machine connected to my home wireless network.

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Even the mouse still works, complete with scroll wheel. I booted up Firefox and was even able to quickly find an article about the fire from a local paper. Fantastic!

Given the skin-blistering temperatures that emanate through the skin of the aluminum iMac when its bellows are full blast, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that the iMac — like a dragon brewing fire in its belly — is invulnerable to inferno.

11 comments »

About the author

John BrownleeJohn Brownlee is news editor here at Cult of Mac, and has also written about a lot of things for a lot of different places, including Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, Gizmodo, Kotaku, Lifehacker, AMC, Geek and the Consumerist. He lives in Cambridge with his charming inamorata and a tiny budgerigar punningly christened after Nabokov's most famous pervert. You can follow him here on Twitter.

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Posted in iMac, News, Top stories |

  • imajoebob

    Firefox? Really? That’s just pushing it.

  • Dan

    Sadly Apple wont repair macs of “smokers”…. due to health issues….

    i wonder if they will repair THIS mac .

  • http://www.toxicspark.com Andrew Macdonald

    That is almost unbelievable, but very cool.

    I agree with John’s point about how hot the iMacs get. When i’ve had my machine on for 7/8 hours, the top of my Mac is so hot that you can barely touch it.

    Still, I never expected an iMac to live through such a large fire. Another question, did the fire brigade not attend this incident??

    The mans comments mention the smoke and dust, but what about water damage from the fire crews???

  • lutefisky
  • itskaye

    Unbelievable!

  • http://playlistfreestyle.blogspot.com/ Saph

    That is amazing. I almost don’t believe it, but then again I feel like Macs can perform magic so … -shrug-

  • pete

    It’s true, I tell you. All his melted CDs and DVDs worked too once he popped them into the slot.

  • Chir

    It’s not surprising that it survived for logical reasons. All computers have pretty impressive non-operational heat tolerances.

    The circuit boards are made with molten solder fountains which are around 300 degrees Celsius(50/50 solder melts at 220c), and in that pic the temps clearly didn’t even go over 160c, since the plastics weren’t melted.

    However, after being exposed to extreme heat the longevity of the capacitors is cut down dramatically.

  • Erin’s Dad

    That finish is so cool. Is there a stone-washed version?

  • http://ricky@rickysam.com Ricky Sam

    Apple’s next step, 100% Aluminum keyboard.

  • Ian

    OK – but …..

    “After I plugged in the burned power cord and wiped soot off the
    screen, I pressed the melted start button, hoping for nothing. Imagine
    my surprise when the startup sound played from the speakers, the
    screen turned on and the machine connected to my home wireless
    network.”

    So there must have been two other pieces of equipment that survived the fire.

    Still cool, though.