Talk about a smoking start to the weekend, the owner of this Apple PowerBook was lucky to get out of the way with their eye brows still in tact.

The laptop first caught the notice of employees in a London marketing company when it started producing smoke from the battery compartment.

When the company’s IT manager arrived most of the smoke had stopped, leaving it to look like a normal laptop. He gave the laptop a quick check and placed it back on the desk, just in the nick of time.

“Soon after I put it down again, it basically exploded. Flames were flying six feet in the air, and sparks.” he said.

A fire marshal then appeared on the scene and used most of a fire extinguisher on the blazing machine. The flames were calmed down temporarily, but started flaming again as soon as he stopped. The company then called the fire brigade.

The laptop is thought to be between three and four years old and was described as “hot and glowing” and the battery as “molten inside and glowing red”.

Apple are now checking the serial number of the laptop to see whether it was part of a series whose batteries were recalled a few years ago. A number of other computer manufacturers including Nokia, Lenovo and Toshiba have also recalled their Lithium-Ion batteries following similar instances.

Have you ever had an explosive experience? Let us know.

Source: The Inquirer, bit-tech.net