A musician posted a video of his MacBook Pro laptop computer, smoking and ashy black, on social media, after he says it exploded.
“My MacBook Pro exploded today during normal use. No injuries, luckily. Some damage to the house. Could have been worse – good thing I wasn’t on a plane. Very curious to see how @Apple responds,” the man, who goes by White Panda, wrote on Twitter.
White Panda told Mashable that he took the video two minutes after the explosion.
At the moment it’s in a fire proof safe at local Apple store. Waiting on next steps.
— White Panda (@whitepanda) May 29, 2019
“It was literally like when someone throws a smoke grenade and it lands and starts shooting out all sides,” White Panda told Mashable. “Out of nowhere, smoke was pouring out of both sides of the computer.”
He said that since the May 28 explosion he has kept the door closed, fan on, and windows open in the room seen in the video, according to Mashable.
“I was literally blown away,” White Panda told Mashable. “It was so much smoke, so instantaneously.”
He followed up the video with a post on Reddit, explaining what he thinks happened.
“Yesterday afternoon my MacBook Pro exploded during normal use. It was on my lap, plugged in, and suddenly started to spew smoke out both sides. I quickly placed it on the floor where it popped, the smoke increased, and it caught fire. Toxic smelling smoke filled my house triggering smoke and CO alarms,” he wrote on Reddit.
He then sought a response from the manufacturer.
“After it cooled for an hour or so, I took it to the local Apple store in a rage. They understood the severity of the situation but said nothing could be done until it spent 24 hours in a fire-proof safe and that they’d call me with a plan/update,” he said on Reddit.
He described how it affected his life and career.
“They did not call. I reached out today and was told it had been ‘escalated’ and I should hear something within FIVE days. I produce music for a living – FIVE days without my computer is unacceptable.”
White Panda said he has experienced shortness of breath and headaches since the explosion, Mashable reported.
Other Exploding MacBooks
Other reports indicate that this is not the first time an Apple MacBook laptop has exploded. In a Medium post, Daniel Dourvaris shows off photos of his burnt out, 2015 MacBook Pro.
15″ MacBook Pro Explodes, Triggers Alarms As User Barely Avoids Harm https://t.co/t8pulx5JLx pic.twitter.com/tOO7U3kB7n
— Wccftech (@wccftechdotcom) May 31, 2019
Dourvaris mentioned hearing a strange sound, along with smoke and flames coming out of his MacBook Pro. He said he burned two fingers trying to take the computer to his bathroom, a less flammable environment, saying he had to drop it.
Then the laptop emitted a bang and sizzling sound. The smoke filled his home, according to his post. He wrote that the source of the explosion was the battery.
He said that with the new unibody Mac designs, there is no way to see that the battery is swelling inside the computer. In older laptops, though the battery might pose the same dangers, you could handle the problem sooner, because you could detect it by noticing its swelling.
