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NEW DELHI: Owning a laptop may have become a necessity for some andfashionable for the rest, but it poses a potential fire threat to thousands ofusers who prefer to take the device to bed and go to sleep without logging off,as was seen in the recent death of a Kolkata-based executive.

SayanChowdhury, a 34-year-old MNC employee, was found dead in his bedroom Nov 6,where he had dozed off while working on his laptop.

Thelaptop and the charging cord were found partially burnt.

Accordingto the autopsy report, he lost his life either because of overheating of thebattery which caused a fire, or electrocution or carbon monoxide poisoning.

Thisincident bears an uncanny similarity with the case of 25-year-old ArunGopalratnam, an MBA graduate, who died June 4, 2010 in a tragic fire inWisconsin, US. The blaze was reportedly caused by his laptop when it overheatedon his bed while he slept, because it had not been logged off.

Investigatorsfound that the laptop’s positioning on the bed had cut off air from its coolingfan, overheating the set, which sparked the fire and produced carbon monoxide,killing Gopalratnam in his sleep.

Similarly,an overheated laptop also killed a 56-year-old man in Vancouver, Canada.The unnamed man fell asleep with the computer still logged on. His laptop’splacement on the bed had cut off its source of ventilation, causing the lithiumion battery, a relatively new technology, to overheat and burst into flamesthat proved fatal for him.

Beinglightweight and portable, users prefer to take their laptops to bed to work,surf the net or watch movies, until they fall asleep in the wee hours withoutlogging off, even as the batteries overheat and start a fire.

Expertsadvise people to avoid this practice.

"Bottomline is that we take things for granted. We feel safe putting a device thatpushes 19 volts and holds many harmful chemicals on the lap. We put a potentialgrenade next to our eye, hoping it won’t go up in flames," writes USgadget expert, technical consultant and blogger Jeffrey Powers.

"Ifyour battery is dead, replace it. Charging a dead battery is like continuallytrying to light a fuse that is soaked in water. Eventually, it willspark," he adds.

Almostinvariably, lithium batteries seem to be a major factor in exploding laptopsbecause of certain limitations, which had necessitated companies like Dell,Sony and IBM to recall a series of batteries in the past.

"Theonly thing you can do if your laptop heads into flames is...don’t throw wateron it. Remember, this can create a fire hotter than a standard fire,"advises Powers.

"AClass D fire extinguisher will help stop the fire. Try to use something to pushit into a trash can or something non-flammable. Keep the laptop plugged into asurge strip - that way if the fire breaks out, the surge protector trips,"says Powers.

AClass D fire is one that involves combustible metals or combustible metalalloys. There are basically two types of Class D fire extinguishers. It is thesecond variant that uses a copper based dry powder -- the only known lithiumfire fighting agent -- which can put out laptop flames.

Thecurrent drive towards more compact laptops also downsizes ventilation to manageheating, just as slimmer batteries raise chances of a short circuit from apunctured separator, a membrane that separates the positive and negativecharges in a battery. DVD players built into laptops too add their share ofheat.

Lithiumin laptop batteries is a highly reactive metal that can burn or explode simplyby being exposed to air or water. It is present in a flammable liquid whichsurrounds a metal coil inside the battery. As this liquid heats up, it flowslike water in a radiator, carrying metallic particles.

One ofthem can pierce the separator, triggering a short circuit that ignites theflammable liquid or generates greater heat and pressure, which end in a leak oran explosion