Dramatic burn photos show why Apple recalled faulty MacBooks

Designer Steve Gagne awoke to strange sounds and the smell of burning chemicals. Of all the tasks completed with his 15-inch MacBook Pro, nearly burning down his house was its final act.

The battery on Gagne’s MacBook Pro exploded three days before Apple announced a recall on mid-2015 Retina MacBook Pros of certain serial numbers housing batteries vulnerable to overheating.

Gagne showed off the charred laptop in a Facebook post. He urged MacBook Pro owners to check with Apple Support to see if their machine is eligible for a replacement battery.

Stores sold the potentially hazardous units between September 2015 and February 2017, according to the Apple support page explaining the battery recall. A box on the page lets users type in their MacBook Pro serial number to determine eligibility.

2015 MacBook Pro recall

Apple issued the recall on June 20 after it received 26 reports of battering overheating, a few of which left users with minor burns. In 17 of the cases, fires caused minor property damage.

Gagne’s machine was not plugged in when the fire started. It was in Sleep Mode with the screen closed, he said.

“Normally I keep my MacBook either on my couch or in a basket with notebooks, journals, etc.,” Gagne, of Pensacola, Florida, wrote on Facebook. “Thankfully, I uncharacteristically left it on my coffee table, and I really believe that this prevented my house from burning down.”

Many users considered this particular MacBook Pro model Apple’s best laptop, according to PetaPixel. The photography website notes that photographers prefer it because of its ports. It was the last MacBook Pro to feature an SD card slot and USB-A ports.