Overheating iPod nano players may have caused 2 fires in Tokyo

TOKYO, Aug. 19 Kyodo - Overheating iPod nano portable media players may have caused two incidents of fire in Tokyo in January and August, the industry ministry said Tuesday.

With the report, the number of fire incidents linked to the players came to three. In March, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry reported anotherfire incident caused by an overheating iPod nano player in January.

The iPod nano is produced by Apple Inc. of the United States and imported byApple Japan Inc.

Apple attributed the incidents to defective battery cells after conducting an in-house investigation, but the cause of the incidents has yet to be confirmed,METI said.

Apple Japan said it will repair players that are overheating.

The three incidents of fire, including one in which a tatami mat was burned, were caused by machines bearing model numbers MA005/A and MA099J/A, theministry said.

In addition to the three incidents, two cases of light burn injuries and 12 cases of damaged players as a result of overheating have been linked to players bearing model numbers MA004J/A and MA107J/A, METI quoted Apple Japan asreporting.

The company sold a total of 1,812,000 units of the four models betweenSeptember 2005 and September 2006.

The models were early versions of the iPod nano series and were reportedlyproduced in China.