A couple of weeks ago we told you about an Australian Power Mac G4 that, despite having been horribly disfigured by intense heat, managed to survive a fire that killed a slew of lesser Wintels. Once the unit had been literally sawn open, all three of its hard disks were found to be in perfect working order with zero data loss; the RAM and SCSI cards worked; and once a display had been plugged into the charred monitor port, the owners discovered to their astonishment that the system still booted up just fine. At the time we suggested that this UberMac be sent back to Apple for breeding purposes, because it clearly possessed some sort of super powers to have withstood a blaze that melted its enclosure almost beyond recognition.

Well, now we've got to retract that suggestion-- not because the survival of that Power Mac was anything short of miraculous, but rather because all Power Macs with the Yosemite-style enclosure might possess the same miraculous fireproof characteristics. Faithful viewer Blondie tipped us off to a Spanish article which we gather (thanks to a heaping helping of Babelfish translation) describes a blue-and-white Power Mac G3 that emerged from another inferno similarly intact. (WARNING: there are photos of the charred G3, and while the unit is basically fine in every way except aesthetically, viewers with more sensitive constitutions may find the graphic images upsetting.)

Two fires, two Power Macs, and two survivors (despite the ugly scarring) while all around, PCs choked and died. Coincidence? We think not. Now, we are by no means telling you that your Power Mac is magically fireproof, or anything, and we certainly don't want to get any irate mail from viewers who chucked their Macs in the fireplace because we told you they'd be fine. Nor do we need the AtAT compound to be surrounded by angry villagers wielding torches and pitchforks who had all decided to throw their Macs into a huge pile, douse them with lighter fluid, and toss in a match, expecting that after the bonfire they'd all be able to plug into a hub and have a big ol' Quake 3 LAN party. In short, kiddies, do not try this at home. For all we know these two fireproof Macs were anomalies.

Betcha they weren't, though.