Your ipod is not fireproof!

I stumbled across an article on PC World.com that described an ipod nano bursting into flames in a man’s pants. The man, Daniel Williams, is an employee at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. His mother said that the flames started in his pants pocket and then burned up toward his chest. They lasted for fifteen seconds.

I am sorry, but when I read this I had to laugh. Don’t think me a monster, but there is something about the image of a nano catching fire in someone’s pants pocket that I find extremely funny. I can just see it: the guy is walking around doing his thing, probably cleaning toilets or transferring luggage from the plane to the luggage car–after all he is listening to his ipod at work so he is not in a position where he is talking with people–and then WHOOSH–his pants are on fire! Scary? Sure, and I am not saying I wish I were there to see it–I’m glad I wasn’t. But in my mind there is something funny about this image, and I cannot help but laugh.

And, the guy is okay. Apparently he had some glossy paper in his pocket which is thought to have kept him from getting burned, so aside from a big scare, a little heat discomfort, and the loss of his ipod he is okay. The cause of the fire was most likely the lithium-ion battery powering the ipod. These batteries are known to cause laptops to burst into flames (another funny image–but again something I would not want to happen to anybody), and last year Apple, Dell Inc, and Lenovo Group limited all had to issue a recall on millions of these batteries. I guess it’s just too bad for Mr. Williams that his was not one of the ones recalled. But then again, if it had been I would not have the picture of a pants pocket spontaneously combusting.

It still maked me giggle just a little bit.