iPhone fanboys will have you believe that exploding batteries are exclusive to Samsung Galaxy smartphones, but that’s not true.
Even Apple devices go bang from time to time — like this 2015 Retina MacBook Pro, which was completely destroyed when its battery catastrophically failed and caught fire.
Although it’s a rare occurrence (unless you buy a Galaxy Note 7), it’s possible for the lithium batteries used in portable electronics to burst into flames if they become faulty. This often destroys the device they were contained in, and sometimes injures the user, too.
Daniel Dourvaris discovered this while browsing the web in bed on a Retina MacBook Pro that was running off battery power alone.
“One afternoon as I was lying on my bed browsing the internet, my MacBook Pro suddenly turned off,” he describes. “I turned it back on and within a few seconds there was weird hissing sound, followed by white smoke and thin flames coming out of from the back.”
Dourvaris quickly took the machine into his bathroom where he could place it down on ceramic tiles. Smoke continued to pour out of the machine as he backed away from it. He then heard a bang as the battery exploded and the MacBook’s bottom panel was pushed away from the body.
Photo: Daniel Dourvaris
“It kept sizzling for a few minutes and then finally it stopped,” Dourvaris adds. “The house had filled up with smoke everywhere, the acidic stench of melted plastic made my eyes water.”
It took almost an hour for the MacBook to cool down, Dourvaris said. The amount of heat it generated “was insane,” and caused blisters on Dourvaris’ fingers as he carried the machine from his bedroom into the bathroom.
“All I have to say is that I was lucky that I was around when the laptop caught fire.”
This isn’t the first Apple device destroyed by an exploding battery, and it won’t be the last. Fortunately, incidents like this are extremely rare, so there’s no need to worry about your gadgets catching fire.
We’re trying to find out how Apple has responded to this, and we’ll update this post once we have answers.
