Rankin Inlet house fire caused by overheated laptop on bed

A fire in a Rankin Inlet home July 26 was caused by a laptop computer that overheated while it was left on a bed plugged in and updating its software, said the hamlet’s fire Chief Mark Wyatt.

Wyatt was the officer on duty when he got a call after 9 p.m. about a bed on fire, he said in an interview.

He arrived at the scene four minutes later and used a fire extinguisher to attack the flames, which had engulfed the room.

“I was able to get to the window and empty that fire extinguisher into the room, which slowed the fire down and gave the fire department time to arrive,” Wyatt said.

The community’s volunteer firefighters arrived soon after and remained at the scene for about two and a half hours.

Wyatt said residents of the home attempted to use their own fire extinguisher but that didn’t work, so they fled and called for help.

“A bed on fire like that, especially with lithium batteries in a computer, is going to go very, very quickly,” he said, adding it can double in size every minute.

“The charred, burned laptop was sitting on the bedsprings after the fire was all put out.”

Nobody was injured in the fire. The house can be repaired, Wyatt said, estimating it could cost about $200,000.

Wyatt said the fact that some of the doors in the house were closed at the time prevented the fire from spreading to other rooms.

This is not the first time Wyatt has had to respond to an electrical fire in Rankin Inlet, but seeing one caused by a laptop with a faulty charging cable left on a bed while updating was new.

For safety reasons, laptops should be left on hard surfaces, he said. Because this one was smothered by bedding, it was unable to ventilate and heated up quickly.

“Electronics basically shouldn’t be plugged in unless you’re either there or you’re using them,” he said.

“There’s hundreds of incidents around the world where fires have started because of faulty cellphone chargers, faulty plugs, things drawing power that shouldn’t and overloading circuits.”

Wyatt emphasized that people need to make sure they have a working fire extinguisher which hasn’t been squeezed or depleted and hasn’t had its safety pin pulled.

“Make sure your fire extinguishers are new and working, and check them every year,” he said.

“A working fire extinguisher in this case would have been very beneficial.”