Apple Battery Fire and Injury Information

What Happens When a Lithium-Ion Battery Catches Fire

A lithium-ion battery stores a lot of energy in a small space. When a cell fails, that energy can come out as heat. The CPSC's PowerBook battery notice describes one way this happens: "An internal short can cause the battery cells to overheat, posing a fire hazard to consumers."

The term for the worst form of this failure is thermal runaway. It is an uncontrolled self-heating reaction inside a lithium-ion cell. The reaction speeds up until the cell vents gas, catches fire or ruptures. Heat from one cell can spread to the cells next to it, which is why a small fault can turn into a larger fire.

Most rechargeable devices contain a battery management system, the circuitry that monitors each cell's voltage, temperature and charging rate. If that system fails, or if a cell is damaged, flawed or overcharged, its safeguards may not hold. Because thermal runaway is driven by what is happening inside the cell, it can begin whether or not the device is plugged in.

Product liability law sorts battery failures into three kinds of defect. A design defect is a flaw in the plan for every unit. A manufacturing defect means one unit came out differently from its design. A warning defect means the instructions or warnings did not adequately address a risk. A fire does not prove any of these on its own. The site's lithium battery injury guide covers these terms across all product types.

If your device burned while unplugged, or after a period of normal use, that does not by itself point to or away from any one kind of defect. Which category, if any, fits a particular fire is one of the questions an attorney can help sort out from the device and the records.

Who Made Your Device and Why That Matters

The CPSC recall notices on this page identify the computer manufacturer as "Apple Computer Inc., of Cupertino, Calif." That was the company's name in those notices from 2004 to 2006. The notices also name other companies in the battery supply chain: Sony Energy Devices Corp., of Japan, as the battery cell manufacturer for the 2006 recall, and LG Chem Ltd., of South Korea, as the battery manufacturer for the 2004 and 2005 recalls. If you are trying to work out who could be responsible for a battery fire, this means more than one company may have had a hand in the product.

Apple, like any company that designs, makes or sells a finished consumer product with a rechargeable battery inside, carries a federal reporting duty. Under 15 U.S.C. § 2064(b), every manufacturer, distributor and retailer of a consumer product must report to the Commission when it "obtains information which reasonably supports the conclusion" that the product has one of these problems:

• it fails to comply with an applicable rule or with a voluntary standard the Commission has relied on;
• it fails to comply with any other rule, regulation, standard or ban the Commission enforces;
• it contains a defect that could create a substantial product hazard; or
• it creates "an unreasonable risk of serious injury or death."

That duty does not apply when the company "has actual knowledge that the Commission has been adequately informed."

For a reader, this duty runs between companies and the CPSC. It is not the same as an injury claim, and a device that was never recalled is not, for that reason alone, outside the reach of state law. Under state law, a company in this position may face a product liability claim when a product injures someone, which asks about defect, causation and damages. This page describes what the law asks of a business of this type. It does not describe what Apple does in practice, and nothing here suggests that Apple caused any injury.

Whether Your Apple Device Appears in a Recall Notice

The official records on this page concern laptop batteries from two older Apple product lines, the iBook and the PowerBook. Both are legacy laptops. The products the notices name are:

• the 12-inch iBook G4;
• the 12-inch PowerBook G4;
• the 15-inch PowerBook G4; and
• in the 2004 notice, the 15-inch PowerBook G4 (Aluminum).

Each notice limits its own scope. For example, the 2006 notice states: "No other Apple notebook computers are involved in this recall."

Many readers arrive with questions about an iPhone, a MacBook, MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, an iPad, an iPod or an Apple Watch. The CPSC notices described here name none of those product lines. No model is singled out on this page as one to avoid, because no record cited on this page supports that. If your device is one of these newer products, the absence of a notice here means only that these records do not address it; it does not settle whether a claim exists.

People sometimes ask why a phone is burning through its battery. Fast drain and heat can come from many sources, including:

• heavy software load;
• a hot or cold environment;
• an aging cell;
• physical damage; or
• stress on the battery management system.

Those signs alone do not show which cause is at work, or that any device is defective. The site's page on Apple battery overheating records looks more closely at what the official records say about overheating.

CPSC Recall Records Involving Apple Batteries

A recall is a safety action in which a manufacturer, working with or ordered by the CPSC, asks consumers to stop using a product, return it or accept a remedy, because of a reported hazard. Under 15 U.S.C. § 2064(i)(2), the content of a CPSC-ordered recall notice includes the product's model number and description, the hazard, the units involved, and "the number and a description of any injuries or deaths associated with the product," along with the remedy and the other items the section lists. Each Apple battery recall below is stated as its CPSC page states it.

The August 24, 2006 notice. The CPSC notice of August 24, 2006 is recall number 06-245.

• Product: "Rechargeable, lithium-ion batteries with cells manufactured by Sony for certain previous iBook G4 and PowerBook G4 notebook computers only."
• Units: about 1.1 million battery packs in the United States.
• Hazard: "These lithium-ion batteries can overheat, posing a fire hazard to consumers."
• Incidents: the notice states that Apple "has received nine reports of batteries overheating, including two reports of minor burns from handling overheated computers and other reports of minor property damage. No serious injuries were reported."
• Remedy: a replacement battery, "free of charge."

The May 20, 2005 notice. The CPSC notice of May 20, 2005 is recall number 05-179.

• Product: "Rechargeable batteries for iBook G4 and PowerBook G4 computers," model numbers A1061, A1078 and A1079.
• Units: about 128,000 units in the United States.
• Hazard: "An internal short can cause the battery cells to overheat, posing a fire hazard to consumers."
• Incidents: the notice reports "six reports worldwide of batteries overheating, including two reports in the United States."
• Remedy: a free replacement battery.

The August 19, 2004 notice. The CPSC notice of August 19, 2004 is recall number 04-201.

• Product: batteries with model number A1045, used in the 15-inch PowerBook G4.
• Units: about 28,000.
• Hazard: the same internal-short overheating hazard as the 2005 notice.
• Incidents: "four reports of batteries overheating, though no injuries have been reported."
• Remedy: a free replacement battery.

The notices state that the products were sold through Apple's own stores and through resellers.

A recall is not a finding that the product injured anyone, or that anyone is liable, and an incident report does not establish what caused an injury. Each notice covers specific model and serial-number ranges, and none describes a defect across Apple's products. The site's recall lookup guide explains how to match a device to a notice, field by field.

Why a Swollen or Overheating Battery Is a Warning Sign Worth Taking Seriously

Battery safety guidance commonly lists warning signs that can come before a fire: swelling, sometimes called "pillowing"; unusual heat; hissing; a chemical smell; and discoloration. Swelling is a sign that gas is building inside a cell. It can happen in any lithium-ion battery and is not a finding about any brand. Because the cell expands inside a tight case, the first sign is often a screen that lifts, a trackpad that bulges, or a casing that no longer closes flat.

Heat is a normal part of charging and use. Heat that lingers, keeps rising, or comes with a smell or discoloration is associated with battery stress. If you are holding a device that feels like that, the worry is concrete. A cell under early thermal stress can, in some cases, move into thermal runaway.

Some people ask whether an iPhone can explode from overheating. In severe thermal runaway, a lithium-ion cell can rupture and vent flammable gases. Others ask whether a phone can catch fire while it charges overnight. Charging generates heat, and a battery with a compromised battery management system or physical damage may be at higher risk during long charging. None of this says that any particular device will fail.

When a battery has swollen or burned, people often stop using the device, photograph its condition, and set it aside rather than discard it. If you were hurt, the device itself, photos, purchase records and medical records are usually what later shows what happened, as the evidence section below describes.

What You Would Need to Show After a Battery Injury

If you were hurt by a battery, the claim that could follow is a product liability claim: a claim by an injured person against a product's designer, manufacturer or seller. Most of these claims arise under state law, and they usually rest on one or more of the three theories described above: a design that was unreasonably dangerous, a unit that departed from its intended design, or missing or inadequate instructions or warnings about a risk.

Federal regulations describe "defect" in similar terms for the companies' reporting duty. Under 16 C.F.R. § 1115.4, "a defect is a fault, flaw, or irregularity that causes weakness, failure, or inadequacy in form or function." The same section states that "a product may contain a defect even if the product is manufactured exactly in accordance with its design and specifications, if the design presents a risk of injury to the public." That regulation guides reporting to the CPSC. A state court applies its own state's law to an injury claim.

Under any of the three theories, a claim generally has to show three things: a defect existed, the defect caused the injury, and the injury led to damages. Whether those elements are met depends on the facts of each case.

A statute of limitations is the period within which a lawsuit must be filed. After it ends, the right to sue is generally lost. These periods differ from state to state. In many states the period runs from the date of injury; in some, from when the injury was, or should have been, discovered. Fault rules also differ. Some states use comparative fault, which reduces recovery by a person's share of fault. Others use contributory fault, which can bar recovery altogether. For someone who kept using a device after it swelled or ran hot, which of these rules applies may affect how that conduct is weighed.

Wrongful death is a legal claim brought by surviving family members when a person dies as a result of another party's wrongful act or a defective product. Who may bring it, and what damages the law may allow, depend on the state. A family weighing these questions often wants to understand which state's law applies and when its time limit began. If you'd like to talk through how these rules may apply after a battery fire, you can request a case evaluation.

Records and Information That Often Matter in Battery Injury Cases

Evidence connects a battery fire to the legal elements of defect, causation and damages. If you were hurt, the records that usually matter include:

• medical records that document the injury and its treatment;
• the device itself, including the battery where it can be safely kept, because it is the physical evidence of how the failure happened;
• photos and video of the device, the battery's condition and the scene;
• receipts, order history or other purchase records that identify the product and trace where it came from;
• fire department, police or other incident reports, if any were made;
• names and contact details of witnesses; and
• any messages with the manufacturer or retailer about the device's condition before the incident.

Model and serial numbers can matter in a particular way. Each CPSC notice above defines its recall by model and serial-number range, and the notices state that these numbers appear on a label on the bottom of the battery. Whether a recall covered a specific battery at the time of a fire may be relevant. A recall still does not prove a claim, and the absence of a recall does not rule one out.

For a family after a fire, gathering these records can feel like one more burden. It helps to know that each item answers a specific question: what the product was, what happened to it, and what harm followed.