We’ve all heard the tales of potential danger regarding iPods and fire. It’s often hard to sort the truth from rumor. Well here’s another cautionary tale. This one comes out of Sweden where a Saab 9-3 recently met a fiery end.

The official cause of the blaze hasn’t been figured out, but investigators strongly suspect that an iPod left in the car is the culprit. The car itself showed no signs of technical faults and there’s no evidence that the fire was intentionally set. Also, the fire started on the seats, where the iPod was apparently sitting.

For awhile there batteries were getting recalled fairly often, but now it’s been quite awhile since we’ve seen a major recall involving laptop batteries. Sadly, its back in the news. Today, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and Health Canada, in cooperation with Hewlett-Packard, has issued a voluntary recall of about 70,000 Li-ion batteries.

Apparently, these cells can “overheat, posing a fire and burn hazard to consumers,”. Thus far, the firm and CPSC have received two separate reports of batteries overheating and rupturing. The result is “flames/fire that caused minor property damage.”

The dudes at the Mutoid Waste Company just need 3 more of these beasts, then they can roam the future wastelands as the Four Robo-dog-men of the Apocalypse, spreading fire and carnage wherever they ride and fulfilling prophecies.

For now they have one. These guys love them some scrap metal and Larry is their latest creation to crawl out of the gates of the workshop and onto the streets of London, breathing fire with each step forward. See the bot in action below.

A research team at Stanford has developed a refrigeration device the size of a thermos. What’s interesting is that it uses no electricity. Zip. Zero. Nada. Zilch. Instead, it contains some kind of coolant that becomes cold when it’s exposed to heat.

Details are scarce, but the units would be fairly cheap to produce at about $50. The price makes it an ideal way to deliver medicines and cold water to developing countries as well as having a bunch of other uses a bit more noble then your next camping trip. It’s a great breakthrough. All a user would need to cool any given thing is fire, which is readily available.

Here’s the latest from Tokyoflash, who aims to start a fire on your wrist. This one is designed vertically with Yellow LEDs that will tell you the hours, red LEDs indicate groups of 10 minutes and the green LEDs indicate single minutes. As always, hard to read for some, but very stylish and futuristic. It features an adjustable strap and they claim that it’s so comfortable you barely know it’s on your wrist. You can get yours for a limited time only launch price of about $130.

Most computer and gadget fans will remember the massive battery recalls that took place a few years ago. Most of the batteries that were recalled were due to fire hazard. Several batteries across the country actually overheated and burst into flames.

Sony and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission have announced that another massive battery recall has been issued. In the U.S. alone about 35,000 Sony made laptop batteries have been recalled and an additional 65,000 laptop batteries have been recalled overseas. The reason for the recall is that the Lithium-ion batteries pose a potential burn hazard. According to Sony there have been 19 reports of the batteries in question overheating, 17 reports of flame/fire and 10 of the reports resulted in minor property damage.

The X Sting Wish not only has a clever name, but an even more clever design. You can easily see it fragging cyborgs and aliens. It’s from UK designer Adam Scott and according to him it’s for extinguishing fires, not fragging aliens. I don’t care what he says, I want to see it make something ugly or robotic into something dead. Not that Scott cares about my fantasies.

The idea is that the X Sting Wish is much easier to understand and operate than your average extinguisher, while still being recognizable. It sports a huge trigger and many firing options, like powder, CO², and water. Plus it’s ultra durable. This is one concept I really want to see become reality.

If fire extinguishers were more like Bazookas, I think more people would volunteer for the job. Fire AND shooting stuff? Hell yeah! Shooting fires out? Even better. This concept is modeled on a light-weight gun design and is loaded with CO2 cartridges with a laser guidance system, so you can hit the target in an emergency.

Just hit the alarm button to alert everybody else that there’s a fire and then pull the trigger and fire. It’s a great concept. Problem is, it’s so fun people would be starting fires just to put them out again. Just think, all those nerf gun hours you logged during your life could finally pay off.

Obviously inspired by the flame throwing prowess of Pyro in the X-men, Everett Bradford designed a system that mounts on his wrist and propels fire when he moves his hand back. The flame is ignited through a fuel can at his waist.

It looks pretty awesome too and I bet he could impress Rogue and Storm enough to score, but it is potentially fatal should he spring a leak. You can tell that he is feeling the intense heat on his hand and cant run it too long. The combustion mechanism is complex and he has a second video for a detailed explanation, but I wouldn’t try this at home. Creating fake mutant powers could prove very dangerous. Cool, but dangerous.

We all want to get some attention when driving in our vehicles. You know it’s true and I know it’s true. That’s what flashy sports cars and hot-rods are all about. Well, here is an upgrade that will definitely get you some attention the next time you’re sitting at a red light.

Now, no one should think for a minute that shooting 20-foot flames from the back of your car is street legal. I’m pretty sure they frown on that sort of thing. Just install the Autoloc Flame Thrower to your exhaust, press the button on the remote and flame away. The site says these are for off-road use only, not that you care what some pencil pusher says. Kits start at $125 for a single exhaust system.

$31,500 can buy you a lot of home furniture from Ikea. You could also sink that money into one piece which will help you live out your home theater, fire blazing in the night fantasies. Meet the Vok Multimedia Fireplace.

This premium piece of wood is available in oak, birch or rosewood and comes in four sizes. You can of course guess why - for the different television sizes in the world. The largest piece will hold a LCD TV up to 52-inches.

A 12 year old Michigan Middle School student had his PSP in his pocket during band practice, when the battery overheated, burning a hole in his pants and sending him to the hospital with leg burns. It seems that in this particular school, students are allowed to have the systems with them as long as they don’t play them during school hours. A policy which I am sure will change after such a close brush with what could have been a case of char broiled genitals.

Sony has been quiet so far regarding the incident. No word on whether the kid was using a third party battery inside the system or not. Much to the kid’s dismay, after being treated he was back in school later in the afternoon.

German designer Max Blank has a 21st century heating appliance that also serves as the center of your living room. This is the company’s Berlin model wood-burnings fireplace, a stand-alone unit that can sit anywhere you like in your dwelling. The gray finish with glass base compliments the Panasonic line of televisions so they have that going for owners of Panasonic home theater equipment.

There’s room for four shelves for you to display your knick knacks. Emissions and smoke are carried up the center pipe so all you’re limited to is where your chimney is located in the room. But the really stand-out feature of the Berlin fireplace is that the glass base can swivel a full 360-degrees allowing you the opportunity to face the fire no matter where you are in the room. Don’t move toward the fire, this time the fire can move to face you. Now where’s our swiveling bathtub?