Best Buy has put out a recall notice for 5,100 MacBook Pro batteries after reports of fires, with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) warning that consumers should “immediately stop using the recalled battery”.

The recalled batteries, which the CPSC says can catch fire while charging, include both the black (model number MC-MBOOK13B) and white (MC-BOOK13W) ATG lithium-ion replacement batteries for Apple’s MacBook Pro laptops. Both batteries bear the ATG logo.

The CPSC and Best Buy decided to act after receiving 13 reports that the battery had caught fire, including one incident which resulted in “a serious burn to a consumer’s leg.”

Anyone using the battery is being advised to remove it from their MacBook Pro and take it to a Best Buy store where they’ll be given an Apple-brand battery or a $50 Best Buy gift card.

According to the CPSC, the Chinese-made battery was sold through Bestbuy.com and Partstore.com, or shipped to customers through the Geek Squad Protection fulfillment at Best Buy, from September 2008 through June 2012.

In a statement to Gizmodo, Best Buy said, “While we are only one of many companies that may have sold these batteries, we feel they are a potential fire and burn hazard and want to keep our customers safe.”

It’s not currently known which other companies sold the battery, so any MacBook Pro users with ATG batteries would be wise to check the model number.

Of course, this isn’t the first time – and won’t be the last – that lithium-ion batteries have hit the headlines in connection with this type of incident. From smartphones to laptops to the very latest passenger planes, the battery is known to sometimes overheat to hazardous levels, an issue that recently prompted product safety test company Underwriters Laboratories to increase its testing standards for the battery.

“The number of lithium-ion batteries in use, the complexity of the lithium-ion battery cells and the numerous usage conditions make the design of safe cells and the development of tests for battery safety standards extremely challenging,” the company said on its website.

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