I know this is a really old thread but someone just linked to it and I had to reply to "Flames?"
My first week on a new job (back in 2002 or 2003) my PC caught on fire over night. When I opened the case, I saw that the fire melted the network card, the CPU fan and part of the motherboard. (Probably roasted the CPU pretty good too.) Then I noticed the dust. There was an inch thick layer of dust over the entire front and back panels where the vents used to be. Everywhere else in the case had 1/4 to 1/2 inch of dust build up.
Apparently, the dust was so thick that air could no longer get in or out quickly enough. The fire consumed the available oxygen and snuffed itself out. I guess that company was pretty lucky that day. The entire office could have been destroyed had there been just a little less dust...
