Chromebook Catches Fire Shaker High School Latham, New York

A Chromebook caught fire on Wednesday morning at an Upstate New York High School, forcing the entire school to evacuate.

For the second time in a week, a New York high school has been forced to evacuate its student body and faculty after a Chromebook reportedly caught fire inside the school.

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Chromebooks Catch Fire at High Schools in Upstate New York

The first reported incident happened last week when school officials at Roy C. Ketcham High School in Wappingers Falls, NY, announced they had to evacuate the school on Monday, May 5th, after a student issued Chromebook began to smoke inside a classroom.

At the time, school officials believed the Chromebook was tampered with following a trend that's been reported on the social media platform TikTok, where someone places pieces of graphite from a pencil inside the charging port or the USB port of the Chromebook. As the graphite gets hotter, it reportedly makes the machine begin to smoke.

Upstate New York High School Evacuated

The second incident happened on Wednesday, May 14th, at Shaker High School in Latham, NY, when the local fire department said a Chromebook caught fire around 10 a.m. in the J Wing of the school, causing the entire school to evacuate after the fire alarm was activated.

According to News 10, a hall monitor at the school was instructed by the fire department to remove the Chromebook from the classroom and bring it outside of the school to properly contain the lithium-ion battery.

14 students were evaluated at the scene by first responders for potential smoke exposure, thankfully, nobody had to be taken to the hospital. First responders from the West Albany Fire Department’s hazardous materials team responded to the school and said that the battery was experiencing "thermal runaway".

The cause of the fire is under investigation.