Firefighters are putting out an urgent reminder for people not to leave their laptops continuously charging after a family’s home was destroyed in Melbourne.

A fire was sparked inside the Doncaster home on Sunday when the lithium battery inside the laptop overheated after remained plugged into the power source.

A young couple, their 10-month-old baby and the couple’s elderly parents were not at home at the time of the fire.  The single storey brick house was destroyed in the blaze as more than 20 firefighters fought to try and contain the flames.

Fire investigators found the laptop had been left on continuous charge while it was plugged into a television for use as an external hard drive.

The Melbourne Fire Brigade say the blaze is a reminder to remove laptops, tablets and other devices from power sources once they are fully charged, or if no one is in attendance to supervise the charging progress.

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