Complain about a product or service

Dell Laptop Blamed for House Fire

By Joseph S. Enoch
ConsumerAffairs.com

August 22, 2006

Related Stories • Feds Warn of Fire Hazard in Remote-Controlled Airplanes, Helicopters • New Rule Limits Lithium Batteries in Baggage • Georgia Man's Dell Laptop Bursts into Flames • Nokia Joins Battery Recall • Acer Recalls Notebook Computer Batteries • Batteries Could Run on Sugar • MacBook Battery Suspected in Australian Fire • Feds Consider New Lithium Battery Restrictions on Airplanes • Lenovo Recalls ThinkPad Extended-Life Batteries • Dell Sued in Canada Over Exploding Batteries • Sony Battery Recalls Continue • Add Hitachi to Battery Recall List • Sony Battery Recall Tops 10 Million • Lenovo, IBM Recall ThinkPad Notebook Batteries • Toshiba Recalls Sony Laptop Batteries • Laptop Fires Speed Development of Safer Batteries • Panasonic Recalls Laptop Batteries • High Tech Summit To Address Hot Battery Problem • Sony: No More Battery Recalls Expected • Dell Laptop Blamed for House Fire • Dell Battery Recall May Not Be the Answer • Insider: Dell Knew of Battery Problem for Years • Dell Plans Huge Recall of Troubled Batteries • Laptop Fires Worry Airline Safety Regulators • "Exploding" Dell Laptop Destroys Truck, Imperils Outsdoorsmen • Dell Denies It Knew of Overheating Battery Problem for Years • Dell Notebook Batteries Recall Notice --- Earlier Recalls ... • Dell Recalls Laptop Batteries • Dell Recalls Notebook Power Adapters • Dell Recalls Notebook AC Adapters (#2) • Dell Recalls Laptop Batteries

A man in South Venice, Fla. believes his Dell laptop is the cause of his house burning down.

Louis Minnear told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune that about 5 a.m. Thursday he smelled what he believed to be an electrical fire. He searched the house for the source, didn't find it and went back to sleep. About 45 minutes later he awoke to find his couch engulfed in flames.

Minnear led his pregnant wife, 9-month-old son and two dogs to safety while scrambling for what belongings he could.

"It moved fast; it burned hot," Minnear told the Herald-Tribune. "But they got it out quickly."

In the end, all he could salvage were a few family photos, toys and his wife's purse.

The Dell was a Latitude D500, equipped with one of the 4.1 million batteries Dell recalled two days before the fire.

Minnear is "convinced" the Dell, which he said was sitting on a pile of papers, started the blaze.

The flames took less than 20 minutes to tear through the small home, destroying everything and leaving it uninhabitable.

Sarasota fire officials have yet to determine a cause but did verify that a laptop was on the remains of a couch. The case currently rests in the hands of the Florida State Fire Marshal.

"Sometimes the fires are left undetermined," Sarasota Assistant Fire Chief Paul Dezzi said. "Sometimes you cannot figure out what would have caused it."

Dell and the office of the Florida state fire marshal did not return two phone calls for comment. Dell also did not return phone calls made by the Herald-Tribune.

Should the fire marshal determine that the laptop was the cause of the fire, this would be the most destruction any Dell laptop has caused. In the first publicized case, in June, only the Dell laptop was destroyed. Then a month later, a Dell laptop in an office in Illinois charred itself and the desk it was sitting on.

Then, later in July, a truck in Nevada went up in flames sending two men fleeing as the flames reached the gas tank and two boxes of bullets in the glove box.

Report Your Experience
If you've had a bad experience -- or a good one -- with a consumer product or service, we'd like to hear about it. All complaints are reviewed by class action attorneys and are considered for publication on our site. Knowledge is power! Help spread the word. File your consumer report now.

Back to the top |