A 14 year old girl from Kennebunk, Maine, was injured after her iPhone 5c caught fire, while in her pants back pocket. The fire turned the green iPhone 5c to black, with plastic molten, pictured above.
The eight-grader’s iPhone 5c caught fire with a “pop” sound, following which she had the presence of mind to “stop, drop and roll.” From Sea Coast Online:
Rodman said the female student was about to start her first class of the day, at approximately 7:40 a.m., when she sat down in her classroom and “heard a pop” from her back pants pocket, where her phone was located. Immediately, the student noticed smoke coming from that area.
[…]Crews from Kennebunk Fire Rescue responded immediately, Rodman said, and the student was cared for then transported to the hospital for additional care.
The girl suffered second-degree burns, and was discharged from the hospital after a treatment lasting 45 minutes.
Many such iPhone and iPad incidents have been found to be due to faulty third-party components, but in this case, it seems that the cause was the iPhone’s battery “shorting out” because the girl sat down with the phone in her back pocket.
