8 Pints - She probably put it in a zip-lock baggie, at least?

I had the impression that "in the bath" was not so much to keep it cool as to prevent the fire from spreading if it exploded.

Actually, the only "flaming laptop" incidents I've heard of have been due to the rechargeable Lithium batteries, and that seems to be a problem only when there are manufacturing defects that should show up in the first couple of recharge cycles. Several laptop makers have had rather large recalls due to smoking battery problems. A few have had several recalls. For some reason, they seem reluctant to discuss it though.

Some laptops do get hot enough to be quite uncomfortable to hold on your lap, but the temperatures inside, where it really matters to the machinery, are not that much different than is "standard" inside the cases of many desktop machines.

John