Laptop fire almost destroys college library

A St Peter’s College student’s laptop burst into flames this week, almost causing irreparable damage to the college’s library.

Hannah Bowers, a 4th year student reading Spanish and Portuguese, was beavering away in the library when ‘smoke suddenly started to come out’ of her computer.

Fortunately, she removed the fire hazard from the library, averting disaster at the last moment.

The student gave The Tab her version of the story:

“I was in the library working at my computer when smoke suddenly started to come out of it.

“I freaked out for a second, trying to save my work onto my hard disk, but then I realised it was probably more important to take it out of the library.

“At the time it was pretty scary as I thought I had lost 2 years of work but a few hours later I started to see the funny side.

“I also began to realise it could have been a lot worse since it could have caught fire to the paper around it.

“I thought I had lost everything but the Oxford Computing Services managed to recover my hard disk.”

That’ll teach you to keep a hard copy

Brian Hicks, IT Manager at St Peter’s College, sent an email to students at the college, explaining that the fire had been caused by the laptop’s rogue battery, which was not one that had been ‘issued by the laptop’s manufacturer’.

He assured everyone that ‘on this occasion, no one was hurt or injured’, warning that ‘a battery that is not recognised or indeed fit for purpose, can have disastrous effects on the safety of the device, user and surrounding environment.’

Watch out, kids.