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Lehighton bus evacuated after laptop battery fire

A bus was evacuated in Lehighton Area School District on Thursday afternoon after a laptop battery caught fire while the machine was in the backpack of an elementary student.

Nobody was injured after the battery overheated and students were moved to another bus and transported home, Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver said.

“The kids were absolutely great and the bus driver and staff on duty handled it very professionally,” Cleaver said. “Kudos to them all.”

The laptop was not a school-issued device, but rather the student’s personal computer. The district encouraged students prior to the school year to bring their own devices this year, if possible, to cut down on the sharing of laptops.

Cleaver said the district is thankful nobody was hurt and said it can serve as a teachable moment for any frequent user of technology.

“I think it reinforces the reality that these devices, whether it’s a laptop, tablet or cell phone, can overheat and this type of thing can happen,” he said. “You hear so many stories of people putting the phone under their pillow or leaving the computer in the bed when they fall asleep. They really do need to be stored somewhere safe.”

According to the website Lifewire, signs a laptop is in danger of overheating are the “fan is constantly running and making loud whirring noises, the computer is struggling to perform basic tasks like opening a new browser window, non-specific or unexpected error messages occur, lines appear on your laptop screen, the system freezes or kicks a blue screen, the laptop abruptly shuts down on its own, or certain areas of the bottom of the laptop are hot, like where the fan, RAM, processor, or battery are located.

Experts recommend using a cotton swab or compressed air can to collect the dust or blow it away from the device’s fan if it is feeling hot. Other troubleshooting tips include avoiding blocking a laptop’s vents, closing intensive applications and just giving the machine a break.

A personal laptop battery caught fire Thursday afternoon while in the backpack of a Lehighton Area School District elementary student. District officials said nobody was injured after the battery overheated and students were moved to another bus and transported home. SUBMITTED PHOTO