(FORTUNE Magazine) -- Thomas Forqueran of Kingman, Ariz., was packing his 1966 Ford truck after a camping trip in July when he saw flames shooting out of the passenger window. The source: his new Dell Inspiron laptop. He couldn't save the computer (charred, on seat), but he saved himself. "I looked at that glove box and knew damn well there were three boxes of ammo in there, so I dove." Forqueran, 62, is fine, though his vintage truck didn't fare as well. And neither did Dell. In August the computer maker recalled 4.1 million lithium-ion batteries made by Sony, the largest electronics recall ever announced by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.