Can a FireWire cable fry one or both machines' FW port that it connects to?

"It is obviously possible to plug the wrong thing into a cable and fry whatever is on the other end. It seems like an unlikely scenario to me, but since according to Wikipedia, firewire is rated to ""supply up to 45 watts of power per port at up to 30 volts"". So if the wire were to have an internal short it could conceivably send the power down the wrong pin and cause problems.

Since the MacBook pro was on the cable at both events it is likely the problem. It may have been having issues (sending too much voltage down the wrong pins). It fried the first, then the second and then finally gave out itself. I actually had a similar situation recently on a laptop with the USB circuit that took out a few devices before giving up the ghost itself a week later."