Dell Recalls Batteries Because of Fire Threat

Damon Darlin reporting for The New York Times:

That same month, a Dell notebook in the cab of a pickup parked alongside Lake Mead in Nevada caught fire, igniting ammunition in the glove box and then the gas tanks. The truck exploded. “A few minutes later and we’d have been coming up out of the canyon when the notebook blew up,” said Thomas Forqueran, owner of the laptop and truck. “Somebody is going to wind up getting killed.”

Yikes. The 4.1 million batteries they’re recalling constitute the largest safety recall in consumer electronics history.

No gloating, though: this might be a problem with many lithium-ion batteries manufactured by Sony, not a problem specific to Dell.

★ Monday, 14 August 2006