An Australian surfer is claiming his car was scorched after his brand-new iPhone 7, which was wrapped up in some clothing in his car for a few hours, spontaneous combusted, according to a report from Yahoo News.
Mat Jones, a surfer on the south coast of Australia, claims he returned from a surfing lesson to find his car’s windows blacked out with smoke. He opened the door to find his clothes on fire and most of the interior of the car destroyed.
Jones claims the fire was started by his iPhone 7, which he had wrapped up in his clothes before heading off for the surfing lesson. He claims that he found the phone melting in the wrapped up pile of clothes and believes it was the source of the fire.
Apple confirmed to Yahoo News that it is aware of the claim and is investigating the fire, but wouldn’t comment further. Jones says he bought the phone a week ago, and claims he hasn’t dropped it or used anything but the standard charging cable.
Exploding phones have been a hot topic in the news recently, with Samsung’s Galaxy Note 7 in the news for overheating, fires and explosions, leading to the company having to end sale and production of the device.
Considering we all likely have lithiom ion batteries in our pocket for most of the day, let’s hope Samsung’s exploding phone pandemic doesn’t become everybody’s exploding phone pandemic.