Laptop DC adapter sparks damaging apartment fire

Tag: DC Adapter

An overheated adapter plugged into a laptop computer is being blamed for an apartment fire in the city's northwest Saturday (May 3).

No one was injured in the fire that caused an estimated $125,000 in damage to a fourth floor apartment at 465 Castlegrove Blvd., at around 5 p.m.

Fire crews responded to the apartment building after tenants were alerted to the blaze by fire alarms sounding in the building.

London Fire Department Platoon Chief Syd Gatenby said smoke from the fire was visible from a distance, and when crews arrived they were "greeted with dense, black smoke" coming from the fourth floor on the northwest side of the building.

The first firefighters on the scene made their way to the fourth floor and through the smoke in the hallway determined the source to be unit 409. When crews entered the apartment they were confronted with more dense smoke and intense heat, Gatenby said.

"Firefighters located the source in the couch and the furnishings of the living room area. The fire was extinguished using the standpipe system and the premises was ventilated," he said.

Officials determined a DC adapter for a laptop computer had been placed on the carpet and overheated, igniting both the carpet and the couch.

Officials also said the tenant of the unit had no insurance to cover the extensive damage.