Preventable Fire Stories

Laptops get heat buildup on batteries if left on upholstered furniture.  My power strip might have shut off this laptop before ignition, during the smoldering phase.

WARNING: Computer Probable Cause Of Piqua House Fire

Steve Baker, Northern Bureau Chief

Sunday, November 30, 2008 – updated: 8:10 pm EST November 30, 2008

PIQUA, Ohio — Piqua fire investigators said “it is highly probable that a laptop computer left on and placed on a fabric living room couch,” is the cause of a fire that heavily damaged a house at 1516 Madison Ave. Friday afternoon.It is the home of Matt Taylor, his wife, 10-month-old child, two dogs and two cats. Matt is a lieutenant on the nearby Lockington Volunteer Fire Department.

Friday afternoon Matt said he was home using his laptop computer when the Lockington Fire Department was dispatched to a traffic crash in Shelby County. Matt left his computer turned on, plugged into the electrical socket, on the living room couch.

more at LINK

My SmokeShutoff power strip might have shut the printer off at the first sign of smoldering, preventing the damage and injuries.  My power strip would make all home office electronics safer, considering how many devices we leave plugged in and powered on.  Tagged in “computer” and “laserjet printer” right now, until more details emerge.

Addendum: the damage estimates are varying widely.  But that’s Hollywood for ya.

…As we wrote last night, Nick Nolte suffered smoke inhalation and burns when he tried to put out a fire started in his home in Malibu.

The latest with this story is that Nolte is blaming the fire on a faulty computer printer, which he says was the culprit for the fire.

The actor was able to escape the fire with only minor injuries and relatively small amounts of damage (considering his whole house could have burnt down) to his home. The flames were quickly put out by the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

…

And then, according to TMZ.com, Nolte told his neighbors that he plans on suing the manufacturer of the computer printer for compensation to make up for the almost $2 million worth of structural and personal damage caused by the fire.

More at LINK

….

No, wait!  It’s up to $3 million:

The fire caused $3 million in damage to the structure and contents of the house but the home was not destroyed, Inspector James Barnes of the fire department said. The flames were confined to the living room.   Reuters link

Fire hits O’Connor law office

By Ferdie de la Torre
Reporter

* Constant blackouts allegedly triggered blaze

* Damage estimated at $100,000

A fire allegedly caused by the constant turning on and off of electric power engulfed the O’Connor Berman Dotts & Banes law office on the second floor of the eight-story Marianas Business Plaza building in Susupe early Sunday morning.

As of 7pm last night, Department of Public Safety spokesperson Lei Ogumoro had yet to release the report about the fire to the media.

Saipan Tribune gathered from witnesses that no one was hurt in the blaze that broke out at 1:30am inside the office of attorney Joseph Horrey. Damage to property was estimated at $100,000. Horrey is a member of the O’Connor law office.

Firefighters managed to prevent the blaze from spreading to other offices and establishments within the building.

Lawyer Robert O’Connor told the media yesterday that there are 14 offices in their law firm-one was completely destroyed while another had 50 percent damage. The rest of offices except for two had smoke and water damage, he added.

“Almost every office has smoke damage. But 98 percent of the files are okay,” he said.

He said they believe that the fire started from the battery pack of a computer inside Horrey’s office and spread to the office of the secretary.

more at LINK 

A devastating blaze tore through this High Street home early Monday morning, causing more than $200,000 damage. Jerold Ross, Citizen’s Hose Co. fire chief, declared the home a total loss.
LINDSAY DAVIS/THE EXPRESS

Ross hasn’t declared an official cause for the fire, but said he strongly suspects it started with a first-floor computer or nearby electrical surge protector. Joe Smith said the initial flames came from the back of the house in the area of a bathroom and computer room.

more at LINK

My power strip would be ideal to prevent this fire if it was caused by a computer flame-up it would cut off the computer at the first sign of smoke.  It also has GFI and surge protection, so it is better than a cheapie power strip too.

Gujarat Global News Network, Gandhinagar

Three Gujarati students were charred to death when a massive fire engulfed a house on Thursday in the Western Melbourne district of Footscray in Australia. They were studying in Australia since last two years. One was from Ahmedabad and two from Vadodara.

Deepak Kumar Prajapati, 32, Jigneshkumar Ghanshyandas Sadhu, 24, and Sunil Ramanlal Patel, 24, were trapped in the front room of the Footscray house, unable to escape the blaze that started at about midnight while they were sleeping.

Sunil went to Australia in February 2007 to study hotel management. His parents who live in Chandkheda area of the city are in a state of shock. Sunil’s father works in a bank here. The student association in Australia is making arrangements to send his body back home.

Desperate attempts by neighbours, who broke windows and doors, failed to save the three men. An Indian family of three who rented the property managed to flee the fire unharmed through the back window. after a computer monitor overheated and blew up.
LINK

It would be nice to know what model monitor it was. Sad story. My power strip might have powered off that computer monitor before the smoldering turned into an explosion.

My power strip is suitable for computers people need to leave powered on. I bet a lot of parents would buy my power strip for their children they send off to college.

not sure the computer caused it, but whatever the cause, I’m betting the fire would have been prevented if the power strip where it started had been one of my SmokeShutoff power strips.

Fire results in extensive home damage

By Steve Zucker News-Review staff writer
Story updated: Thursday, November 15, 2007 11:26 AM EST

CLARION — Fire officials believe an electrical problem sparked a fire that caused extensive damage to a home in Charlevoix County’s Melrose Township early Wednesday.

Melrose Township Fire Chief Dennis Howard said firefighters were called to the Tony Walters residence at 5471 Maple Hill Road shortly after midnight to a report of a fire in the single-story home.

Howard said Walters was alone in the home and asleep at the time of the fire. He said Walters, who is hearing impaired, did not hear the home’s smoke detectors, but was awakened by something else. He said the house was filled with smoke so he climbed out a window and walked to a nearby relative’s home to call 9-1-1.

more at LINK

Howard said and investigation showed the fire started in an interior room of the house in an area where a computer and several other electronic devices were plugged in.

LINK

Article Launched: 08/04/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT

Overheated computer equipment started a fire Thursday at an East Side apartment complex that suffered more than $80,000 in damage, El Paso Fire Department officials said.

The fire at the Camino Real Apartments, 2801 N. Yarbrough, started at about 9 p.m. when the equipment overheated and came in contact with paper, Lt. Mario Hernandez said. No injuries were reported, but flames engulfed two apartment units.

You know you’re going to need a power strip or UPS for your computer. Why not use one that will shut the system down if it detects smoke?

LINK
QUICK-THINKING grandmother saved her two young granddaughters when a fire broke out in an upstairs bedroom.

Denise Mayoh was making a cup of tea when she heard the fire alarm go off in her house in Dyson Street, Farnworth, at around 11am on Saturday.

She was babysitting her granddaughters, Chloe and Coadie Corkhill, aged three and two.

Coadie was with her in the kitchen, but Chloe was in the upstairs bathroom.

Mrs Mayoh, who is registered disabled and normally has to use a stairlift, got herself up the stairs as fast as she could and saw that the computer table in the front bedroom was on fire and the blaze was quickly spreading.

She grabbed Chloe from the bathroom, went downstairs and took both grandchildren out of the house to the back garden.
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The blaze destroyed the contents of the bedroom, including the ceiling, floors and window, and had started spreading to the bathroom next door when fire crews arrived.

Smoke from the blaze seriously damaged the rest of the house and its contents.

Mrs Mayoh said: “If I had thought and closed the door then it would have probably saved a lot of my things, but I just wanted to get the kids out.

“At the end of the day, I may have nothing left upstairs but at least my grandchildren are safe and nobody got hurt. That’s the only thing that matters to me.”

Firefighters are not sure how the fire started but have logged it as being due to a child playing with a lighter.

However, this is only a probable cause and an electrical fault with the computer could have also caused the blaze.

Mrs Mayoh, aged 47, said: “It was definitely the computer. It was not a lighter.

“It started in the corner with the computer. I had only recently plugged it in for the kids to play games on.

“The top and middle shelf where the computer and TV are kept were burnt out.”

I trust the grandmother on this one. Just a guess, but I bet there was cat hair clogging the power supply fan, causing overheating that would have been prevented by a smoke shutoff power strip.

LINK
Two NEC Desktops Reportedly Catch Fire in Japan
Brandon Hill (Blog) - December 18, 2006 12:55 PM

After Sony was raked over the coals for months concerning its batteries which were used in millions of notebook computers, NEC is facing a fire hazard of its own. NEC’s problem stem not from batteries, but from power supplies found within its Valuestar desktop PC.

According to NEC, it has received two reports of Valuestar power supplies catching fire in Japan. The cause of the fires has been linked to a faulty coil within the power supplies. No injuries were reported in either case. 14,600 of the Valuestar desktop were shipped between November of 2003 and June of 2004.

The manufacturer of the power supplies has not been provided to the press, but NEC stated that it will replace the suspect units at no charge to customers. Valuestar desktops are not sold in the U.S.