3-Alarm fire burns at Apple's Cupertino campus
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Aug 13th 2008 4:40AM
posted Aug 13th 2008 4:40AM
Uh oh. At about 10pm pacific time, a 3-alarm fire (about 66 firefighters responding) was reported at Apple's Valley Green Six building on Apple's Cupertino campus. The site which is just down the road from the Infinite Loop HQ is said to be an R&D building by Apple personnel -- Apple has not confirmed this. The fire seems to be under control with no reported injuries although it's too soon for any kind of damage estimates. As surreal as it sounds, The Mercury News reports that, "Some Apple employees stopped by to look at the scene and snap pictures on their I-phones." And fiddle, presumably. Hit the read link for a local news video report.[Via MercuryNews, thanks Jeff T.]
Seriously?
Hope all is well...
Any video of the fire? As the spectators were a bunch of iPhone users probably not...
Haha good one Surur :P
Hmm, what are the chances that some mysterious Apple devices are up on eBay in the next week?
I think it's pretty cool that the the iPhone is such a threat that all the bashers can continue to come up with is 'it doesn't do video".
It's a phone. Not a camcorder.
Oh yeah, MMS and cut & paste. The other 'deal breakers'. Man, you guys have it made with your qwerty keyboards and your VCAST.
Yeah Frank, I know that anytime I point out a shortcoming in something, it's because I'm threatened by it.
If the iPhone had video, any phone that came out with a camera that couldn't take video would be met by "lolololol crap phone, doesn't do video, iphone rawks dood!!!1".
Hey Frank! I bet that I am able to type way faster and more accurately on my physical qwerty keyboard than you can on the iPhone's virtual one.
VCAST? Ha! I laugh. Since my mogul runs Windows mobile, I'm able to stream live television from my Vista Media Center PC. Also, I'm able to remotely control my computer with Logmein or GoToMyPC.
Also, how hard would it be to program some copy/paste & video functions. It's just software! Didn't Steve say that that was the new paradigm?
Now that i have blown all of your arguments, please, never return with your trolling habits.
Where is the google streetview car when you need it...
Apple should put better cameras in their iphones, it helps in cases like this, it's for their own good.
@Matt
Why does the damn thing have a camera then?
The iPhone is supposed to be a smartphone. If you want to compare with plain phones, there are plenty of sub $40 phones that can only make phone calls. But the iPhone is Fail there, because nobody has rave reviews of the iPhones call quality being especially good (well except maybe people in the Apple boy Army). In fact, it's speakerphone volume sucks in comparison to many phones.
At its price, the iPhone is fair game to make fun of shortcomings -- such as lacking video or MMS. And its funny because most iPhone owners are paying a tax for their desire for cute (exception being ones who use the awesome web browser).
@Johan S
Matt's argument was against the iPhone, not for. He was illustrating the point that iPhone fanboys would mercilessly make fun of phones without video capabilities if the iPhone were to have it.
I just drove past there on my way home! Around 12:30AM everything seemed fine... I think i go by that building, i forget now.
-Taylor
Thats a nice haircut.
Milton finally did it. Putting him down in storage B and asking him to take care of the roach problem was the last straw.
Well if he got to keep the damn swingline!
Maybe a faulty laptop battery? Just, maybe?
Oddly enough, I was thinking the same thing. With those stories of MBPs overheating...
Same thought I had.. it would be funny. Well, funny as fires go, that is.
fireproof iphones?
Apple is really HOT these days :)
Booooooo! :D :D
So, apart for being about Apple, where the hell is the technology in this post?
you using a mouse and keyboard [both input peripherals] to reply to this comment when you could've just skipped over it...
Well, i can say the same when Bill Gates retired and they did a week's worth of Bill Gate news. How is his retirement reverent to technology news?
Relevant, Alberto. :)
And yes, both stories are relevant.
agreed happy.
just read/reply to what is relevant to YOU and skip over what isn't to make comments easier to read though for other people...
Whether you like him or not, Bill Gates did do a hell of a lot for the world of technology. This is relevant in that it's happened at one of the biggest technology companies around. I'd be more than happy with a week of Steve Jobs news when he retires.
Although I'd love to start a fire at a Microsoft or Asus etc building to see what is said...
Are you missing the details to the firetrucks ijyt? They are red and shiny and big and have a lot of waaaateeer inside!!!
Phoenix.
I was being sarcastic. This dude's comment on Apple possibly burning down not related to the tech world is idiotic.
if Microsoft's R&D building had a fire, i bet that would get reported too... depending on how bad the fire was, this could be a big deal
ijyt,
On fire, obviously.
What makes it relevant is that if this is an R&D building, and there is significant water, smoke, and/or fire damage, it could set Apple back very far, and we might not get a product they were planning to release around the holidays (well, it would come out eventuall, just not in time). If this has been the building of a long-term project (like the creation of the iphone), it could set them back YEARS.
...we don't need no water, let the m**********r burn...
Damn, I wanted to write that ... :)
Man, you just aged yourself there...
...and so did I, damn!
except that the song is in DJ mixes at all the raves and the candy kids know the lyrics to the song.....
Since this is an R&D Building, you can bet Steve Jobs was screaming that, or out on the lawn with Clipboards getting Firefighters to sign a NDA.
Maybe it was Bill. He has a lot of free time now you know.
To quote Tom Dickson...
"iSmoke! Don't breath this!"
http://www.willitblend.com/videos.aspx?type=unsafe&video=iphone
Zune Guy was just feigning his disinterest in Microsoft to get in with Apple.
The bastard.
I didn't think Apple used sony batterys in thier laptops :p
Actually, they did :)
http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/29/apple-in-trouble-with-japan-over-sonys-exploding-batteries/
There is NO exit strategy!!!
lol good one!
[+1]
Probably MagSafe, not the batteries.
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=1291
probably some new product in development, which thankfully will never be released due to it's explosive nature.
So the problem of over-heating iPhone is true.....
Looks like the iPhone 3G shortage now got WORSE....
Apple has officially gone iFire.....
Maybe that their FireWire not on iPhone made FireWire mad, that FireWire decided to take FINAL ACTION, fire the wire...
i see what you did there...
Wow, that had so much potential to be funny.
It's a damn shame. I hate to see wasted potential.
I WAS RIGHT. Apple has been secretly working on an iFire app for the iPhone that makes it spontaneously explode into a gazillion pieces.
R&D huh, maybe someone was trying to cover up for something being developed that could have done bad things in the wrong hands??? let the rumors BEGIN!
i though i saw Sarah Connor around the valley recently...
Maybe it's the special Michel Phelps edition Macbook Pro that I'VE BEEN DYING TO GET... (I think this is the reason why)
or the iPod touch with GPS.....
or the iPhone Kill Switch for Business and housewives who has husbands that keeps using iPHone and not paying attention to the wives....
or the new iMac with no disc drive....
or the FireWire that actually is on fire...
Multiple Rumors, so many reason, (but the FIRST RUMOUR MIGHT BE THE REASON..)
lol firewire that's on fire maybe that was it
battery storage...
Nobody made the BOOM comment yet? Tsk tsk.
I expect more Apple lawyers than policemen are down there right now handing out NDAs. I bet the place will be locked down tighter than Area 51. Expect slightly fire damaged touchscreen Macs on eBay in 5...4...3...
Sarah and John Connor plus a T800 blowing up the building to stop the development of SkyNet.
dude that'd be the iSkyNet
Looks like they're no closer to making a PowerBook G5 run cool then ;)
More than likely it was a simple electrical fire from plugging too many devices into an electrical outlet or something mundane like that.
The chances of them just leaving a prototypical device out in an area that could catch fire would only be anything but slim to nil if the guys in Cupertino were beyond daft.
with the way that macbook pros/ipods/iphones have popped up recently (on Engadget, no less) I don't know if it necessarily had to have been a prototype device at all.. maybe someone just left a nano on a dock somewhere.
Apple's iNapalm, an integral part of Steve Jobs' plan to take over the whole world and manufacture 7 billion iPods
Is anyone having these problems with the iPhone? Maybe unhappy customers started the fire.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1600894&tstart=0
Maybe the iPhone 2.0 Kill Switch actually kills more than just the application...
Wouldn't it be hilarious if they actually had a giant physical "kill switch".
:P
Aye, a big red lever on the wall with yellow and black stripes beside it rofl
Although that would be silly, they'd be killing their market base, plus most of their high-ranking staff... Actually, not a bad idea.
Because nobody else did it and Gizmo wanted it:
"BOOM!"
I told them not to use Sony batteries!
It seems Steves research to make a direct Route Home back to hell failed..
wait! one guy gets burns for keeping an iphone in his pocket couple of days back, now r&d dept is on fire??
not good for apple.
They were testing the new anti-jailbreak firmware which, instead of bricking your iPhone, will enable the self-destruct sequence. Glad nobody was hurt.
Sounds like somebody got their red Swingline taken away from them one too many times...
I think I heard somewhere that the fire was started in storage room B...
Ah, you beat me to it!
"I said no salt. No salt!"
You need a good burnin every once in a while.
A private investigation has revealed that the three-alarm fire was caused in an attempt to secure cake.
Silly cake securing people. We all know that the cake does not exist.
it would be more fitting if Jobs was playing a fiddle... (not the employees)
I think its just Bill Gate's retirement party with the boys from Microsoft doing a pranky on apple. I can just see Bill gates {runs to the door on apple's campus and lights a paper bag with dog sh** in it and pushes the button}. LOL and starts snickering in the bushes
Eh... Jobs should have invested some of his greedy money in some sprinklers and Super soakers...
With that keyboard, I bet nobody captioned their photos...
wow!
i used to live no more than 2 minute a away from valley green (de anza 7)
my grandmother lived on stelling rd just before the corner of garden gate,
i was always there; good food + a swimming pool
thinking about it now, i probably passed by those buildings nearly all my life; in fact i've even been inside couple of them...
shame... hope all is well and nobody was hurt
Sure would be a shame if the whole building didn't burn down.
burn crapple burn
why? why do you have to keep the flame wars going? (pun not intended)
Lack of intelligence or anything better to do, obviously.
Fortunately school starts back up in a month or so.
Burn Baby Burn
Iphone inferno
Burn Baby Burn
Ha Ha. Apple's new MobileMe ad campaign:
Disk Go Inferno
Everyone's a comedian...
Well at least there are no harmful materials in the products, breathe in that thick smoke with no worry people!
(And I hope everyone is ok)
"Unfortunately the Apple employees were not able to call 911 as their 3g iPhone's did not have reception in the area."
unfortunately, noone in the fire department had an iPhone codec-compatible phone so they were unable to decipher the call made to them
Pics of fire found on Flickr...
http://flickr.com/photos/jessicaspacekat/sets/72157606698174568/
I hear they will be releasing a gray colored iPhone 3G today.
Best post this summer.
Valley Green 6 isn't an R&D building, it's a building used by IS&T (IT Department). Somebody probably put some tinfoil in a microwave on accident.
Must be a sad day for SuperSexyErik, for he wasn't among the spectators who took pics of the fire with their iPhone.
Wheee! Pointless Apple news!
Think we can get a story covering what the Apple campus is serving for lunch today? Could it be pizza? I love pizza day.
In recognition of this event, I think today will be burnt toast day
More like burned chips.
Silicon chips