My 4yr old iMac's video card caught fire, should apple replace it?

I bought an iMac on Monday 24th December 2007, and after attempting to turn it on - 19th January 2012 the video card caught fire in it and has damaged the computer completely.
I find this very surprising from such a high quality brand such as Apple, and I'm wondering if I'm within my rights as a consumer to ask for a refund or fully paid repair. The computer is barely four years old and I treat it with kid gloves. I keep it well away from any danger and it sits comfortably on a solid wood desk, So again I find it impossible to believe that this is a 'natural death' of a iMac.
I took the iMac to a reputable apple centre who quoted me around £1200 to repair the faulty machine.
Cana anyone offer any advice or have suffered any similar problems?

Your iMac is far beyond it's normal warranty, and even beyond the period that would be covered by AppleCare. So getting Apple to cover the issue for free is highly unlikely. I doubt that any consumer rights group would find that Apple is obligated in this matter.
You can of course call Apple support and discuss the matter with them, but even if the iMac actually caught fire rather than a chip just failing (which can in some cases result in significant smoke and stink and make it seem like there was a fire), it's not likely Apple will do anything for you since you probably could not prove that the fire wasn't caused by dust or other debris in the system.
Regards.

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http://ifixit-guide-pdfs.s3.amazonaws.com/guide_13765_en.pdf
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My 4yr old iMac's video card caught fire, should apple replace it?

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