Owners of Apple's iPhones can poke fun at Samsung by dressing up their smartphone with a skin that would make it look like an exploded Galaxy Note 7. However, it seems that the joke would come too soon, as there has been a reported case of an iPhone 7 catching fire and severely damaging a vehicle.
In Australia, surf instructor Mat Jones wrapped his iPhone 7 in his pants and left it in his car as he went into the waves for a surfing session.
On his way back to his vehicle, he saw that smoke was spewing out of his car. A video taken of the burning vehicle appears to show that the fire started where Jones left his iPhone 7.
Jones said that as he looked into his car, he could not see anything, as the windows were all black. Upon opening the vehicle, he said he felt a big heat wave come out of it.
Jones was able to retrieve what was left of his clothes, and found that ash was coming from inside his pants. Upon unwrapping his pants, he found his iPhone 7 melting inside.
Footage taken showed that the front seats, driving stick and dashboard of the vehicle were charred and melted. The images recalled similar situations with the Galaxy Note 7, when a smartphone that caught fire caused a Jeep Grand Cherokee to go up in flames.
In an interview, Jones said that he only purchased the smartphone a week ago. He also claims that he has never dropped his iPhone 7 nor used a third-party charger to charge up its battery.
Jones' statement is significant because an iPhone 6 that previously exploded did so upon impact, which caused a cyclist to suffer from third-degree burns. Using third-party chargers, meanwhile, was one of the initially determined causes for the exploding Galaxy Note 7 before it was found that the smartphone's batteries themselves carried defects.
An Apple spokeswoman said that investigations are underway regarding the incident.
Hopefully this is just an isolated incident, as perhaps the lithium-ion battery of the iPhone 7 caught fire due to overheating, as it was buried in clothes and then left inside a vehicle under the sweltering Australian sun. There are still some Galaxy Note 7 units in the wild despite the repeated requests of Samsung and the authorities for owners to have the smartphone replaced due to the fire hazard that it carries, and the last thing that consumers need is to have to look out for another device that can potentially explode.
