3-Alarm fire burns at Apple's Cupertino campus

by Thomas Ricker posted Aug 13th 2008 at 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.]

Tags: apple, fire

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

Neutral

L8on @ Aug 13th 2008 4:45AM

Seriously?

Hope all is well...

Neutral

Surur @ Aug 13th 2008 7:24AM

Any video of the fire? As the spectators were a bunch of iPhone users probably not...

Neutral

Itsuru @ Aug 13th 2008 7:55AM

Haha good one Surur :P

Neutral

Dale Massey @ Aug 13th 2008 8:06AM

Hmm, what are the chances that some mysterious Apple devices are up on eBay in the next week?

Neutral

Frank Furter @ Aug 13th 2008 8:24AM

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.

Neutral

Matt @ Aug 13th 2008 8:27AM

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".

Neutral

Mike10010100 @ Aug 13th 2008 9:31AM

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.

Highly Ranked

Harkonian @ Aug 13th 2008 11:26AM

Where is the google streetview car when you need it...

Neutral

spass @ Aug 13th 2008 11:55AM

Apple should put better cameras in their iphones, it helps in cases like this, it's for their own good.

Neutral

Johan S @ Aug 13th 2008 12:10PM

@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).

Neutral

BluesK1d @ Aug 13th 2008 12:18PM

@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.

Neutral

Taylor @ Aug 13th 2008 4:48AM

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

Neutral

Bobs @ Aug 13th 2008 11:24AM

Thats a nice haircut.

Highly Ranked

BluesK1d @ Aug 13th 2008 11:44AM

Milton finally did it. Putting him down in storage B and asking him to take care of the roach problem was the last straw.

Neutral

Mike @ Aug 13th 2008 4:55PM

Well if he got to keep the damn swingline!

Neutral

Tim @ Aug 13th 2008 4:50AM

Maybe a faulty laptop battery? Just, maybe?

Neutral

eddy @ Aug 13th 2008 9:59AM

Oddly enough, I was thinking the same thing. With those stories of MBPs overheating...

Neutral

UnixSystemsEngineer @ Aug 13th 2008 10:56AM

Same thought I had.. it would be funny. Well, funny as fires go, that is.

Neutral

Dean Murphy @ Aug 13th 2008 4:50AM

fireproof iphones?

Neutral

Muttley @ Aug 13th 2008 4:52AM

Apple is really HOT these days :)

Neutral

happy_penguin @ Aug 13th 2008 5:46AM

Booooooo! :D :D

Neutral

ijyt @ Aug 13th 2008 4:52AM

So, apart for being about Apple, where the hell is the technology in this post?

Highly Ranked

L8on @ Aug 13th 2008 4:58AM

you using a mouse and keyboard [both input peripherals] to reply to this comment when you could've just skipped over it...

Neutral

Alberto @ Aug 13th 2008 8:10AM

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?

Neutral

happy_penguin @ Aug 13th 2008 5:44AM

Relevant, Alberto. :)

And yes, both stories are relevant.

Highly Ranked

L8on @ Aug 13th 2008 5:49AM

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...

Neutral

Phoenix @ Aug 13th 2008 6:03AM

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...

Neutral

effzehn @ Aug 13th 2008 6:05AM

Are you missing the details to the firetrucks ijyt? They are red and shiny and big and have a lot of waaaateeer inside!!!

Neutral

Alberto @ Aug 13th 2008 8:19AM

Phoenix.

I was being sarcastic. This dude's comment on Apple possibly burning down not related to the tech world is idiotic.

Neutral

maveric101 @ Aug 13th 2008 9:58AM

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

Neutral

UnixSystemsEngineer @ Aug 13th 2008 10:58AM

ijyt,

On fire, obviously.

Neutral

Gman @ Aug 13th 2008 10:59AM

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.

Neutral