Woman Burned After Dell Laptop Explodes. Loretta Luff was sitting inside her Langhorne home watching the Phillies game Sunday, her 6-year-old Dell laptop in her lap, when she began to smell something and heard a strange sound. "The battery just exploded and it blew the laptop over," the 72-year-old said. Luff looked down and realized to her horror that not only had her laptop exploded, but her shirt was on fire. "Then I realized the rug was burning," Luff said. "So I took my shirt to smother that out. Then all these little fires started popping up so I was hitting them." Luff was able to bring the fires under control after pouring a bowl of water on the flames. Firefighters responding to her residence on the 200 block of Comly Avenue were able to put out the remaining hot spots. When the smoke cleared, burn marks were left on her desk, carpet, shirt and even her dog's bed. The responding firefighters picked up the metal shards from the laptop that wer...