"Exploding" Dell Laptop Destroys Truck, Imperils
Outsdoorsmen
By Joseph S. Enoch
ConsumerAffairs.Com
Copyright © 2006 All Rights Reserved ConsumerAffairs.Com Inc.
August 3, 2006
There've been scattered reports of Dell Computer Co. laptops
bursting into flames without warning, though there's been little
urgency attached to the reports. But in a potentially catastrophic
case documented by independent witnesses, a Dell laptop is the
primary suspect in a blaze that ignited several boxes of
ammunition, sent two tough outdoorsmen running for their lives and
left a vintage Ford truck burned to the ground.
It all started as Thomas Forqueran and a friend, Rod Riddle, were
packing up after a two-day fishing trip at Lake Mead National
Forest in Nevada, on July 13, 2006.
Thomas Forqueran's vintage Ford truck post-fire
Forqueran and "Jenny" in happier times
Forqueran put his Dell Inspiron laptop on the floor of the
passenger side of his truck as the two men started packing. Riddle
heard a popping noise coming from the cab while loading equipment
but was not alarmed until Forqueran smelled smoke.
"Flames were shooting about three feet out the window," the
62-year-old Forqueran said. "I ran to the driver's side door and
the flames were rushing at me and the three boxes of bullets in the
glove compartment. It was extremely accelerated. It was like
someone was firing napalm."
Forqueran screamed to Riddle for water, hoping to save "Jenny," his
1966 Ford F-250.
"I could tell by the look of the fire from where I was that there
was no way we were going to put out the fire," wrote Riddle in his
hand-scrawled witness testimonial.
Both men ran for cover as bullets zinged past and the rapidly
spreading flames in the cab of the antique truck reached the gas
tank. Everything in the truck was destroyed in the subsequent fuel
explosion.
"Flames were shooting 12 feet into the air above the truck for
about 10 minutes," Forqueran said. "There was a very large pillar
of black smoke in the sky."
