An 8th grade student at the Middle School of the Kennebunks, Maine, suffered minor injuries and a major shock after her iPhone 5c caught fire suddenly in her pocket.
Principal Jeffrey Rodman of the school said that when the student sat down, she heard a pop. When she looked down, she saw that her iPhone 5c was on fire and smoking. Once the teacher and the girl's classmates realized what had happened, the class was cleared out before the smoking smartphone could cause injury to other students.
Other students helped the teenager to remove her pants, which were on fire. During the commotion, the iPhone 5c fell out of her pocket. The girl was even rolling on the ground at one point because she was afraid that she was on fire, too. Fortunately for this 13 year old girl, she sustained only minor burns and was released from the hospital in good condition after receiving treatments.
"It was something that I don't think people had ever seen before. I've never seen anything like that," Rodman told Seacoast Online.
However, this is not the first time that an iPhone caught fire. In 2011, an iPhone 4 exploded on an Australian airplane midflight. No one was hurt, but things could have gone terribly wrong on that day. Furthermore, in 2009, the European Union was forced to launch an investigation after several reports surfaced concerning iPhones and iPod touches that had suddenly caught fire or exploded.
While this type of incident is not new, no one knows what could have caused the girl's iPhone 5c to explode. Taking all accounts into consideration, we have to conclude that it is highly possible the explosion was caused by a malfunction in the battery after the student sat on the device.
Luckily for this 13 year old student, however, she got help from her classmates and teachers before she could suffer serious burns to her skin. "I commend the students, I commend our staff, and the Kennebunk first responders for their immediate response and for the way it was handled," Rodman said. "It was just a strange thing. A great response by everybody involved."
Let this be a lesson to all - never keep your smartphone in the back pocket of your pants. Then again, a smartphone could also catch fire in any pocket, but it might depend on the situation. We don't know whether Apple will investigate the incident but we suspect that the pressure of sitting down on a device can cause iPhone 5c's battery to short out and explode. EMS Division Chief Andrew Palmeri said the state fire marshall is investigating the incident.
