I mean, it’s really rare (unless you’re a moron), but mobile phone batteries can sometimes explode and/or catch fire. And while you’re probably OK laughing off the odds of it ever happening to you, take a look at this kid’s bed for the outlying exception.
Ariel Tolfree, 13, says her Samsung Galaxy S4 slipped under her pillow while she was asleep the other night. And promptly caught fire, burning right through the sheets and melting the phone into a charred black husk.
If there’s a warning to be had from all this, let it be this: the offending battery was a cheap replacement, not an official Samsung one. You know how in the back of manuals companies always say “only use official batteries”, and you laugh? Yeah, most of the time that’s just garbage, but sometimes, they have a point.
On Your Side: Samsung cell phone fire [FOX 4 DFW, via geekologie]
Comments
9 responses to “Burning Phone Is The World’s Worst Alarm Clock”
scary, but this is about a week old now 😛 also the linked video is dead.
Lol I’m partially glad my family is moving to iPhone ownership purely because it means my family can’t cheap out on replacement phone parts, just in dodgy repairs
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there have been several instances of iPhones catching fire, especially among the cheaper iPhone 5Cs. While that’s still a fairly rare occurrence, there are also a few instances of fires breaking out because of dodgy third party USB cables or plugs.
Actually for an alarm clock that’s pretty good, isn’t it? I mean, you wouldn’t be able to sleep through a smoldering fire beneath your pillow surely…
there’s a reason smoke alarms exist
yeah I’ve lost faith in smoke alarms. we had a housefire earlier this year and neither one we have nearby went off. fire started in the wall behind the ceiling fan switch and the smoke was crazy… it was just lucky I was there at the time or the house would be gone.
I have actually done that. In my sleep I flipped a synthetic doona (duvet) cover onto a halogen desk lamp and continued to sleep while it smouldered. Luckily I eventually woke up and relocated the lamp… Before promptly falling asleep again. Then waking up with charred nylon throughout my bed.
dude that’s messed up although I must admit I can somewhat relate. I woke up one night and could smell smoke from council back burning and I remember thinking that if the house was burning down surely the wife will wake me… then i went back to sleep. .. a few weeks later we actually had a house fire :/
Counterfeit battery and smothering it with a pillow (the old ‘slipped’ excuse, mmm.. yeah.. whatever…), against the manual’s instructions is just asking for trouble.
Also a 13 year old should not have an effing phone in the first place, certainly not a relatively high end one. So some bad parenting thrown in to boot.