An Atlanta man claims his iPhone 6 Plus caught fire when he was charging it in his home, setting his bed on fire in the process.
“There were sparks and flames,” said David Grimsley. “The whole apartment could have burned down.”
In the end, Grimsley says he managed to move the iPhone off the burning blanket and onto a hard surface, where the fire eventually died out.
Apple promised to send a replacement phone, but Grimsley says he’s disappointed by the company’s response.
“I thought they’d be more concerned, or check to see if I got burned or anything was damaged,” he noted, saying that, “I’m kind of nervous about plugging [the new iPhone] in and leaving it on the bed or anywhere it could catch fire. It could happen again.”
While this kind of story is statistically rare, it’s not the first time we’ve heard something similar. Earlier this month, we wrote about a man forced to strip in public after his own iPhone 6 Plus caught fire while in the front pocket of his jeans.
Last year, a plane bound for Prague had to be evacuated after an iPhone 5 caught fire in a passenger’s bag, filling the cabin with smoke — although fortunately none of the 150 passengers boarding the plane when the fire started were hurt.
Although Apple devices have been known to spontaneously combust of their own accord (most infamously, the 1996-era PowerBook 5300 which saved the world in the original Independence Day had to be recalled after two production units caught fire), much of the time these kinds of stories are reported it turns out to be the result of a dodgy, third-party charger or similar.
It will be interesting to hear if this latest incident is another case along those lines.
Source: Fox5Atlanta
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
11 responses to “Man claims iPhone 6 Plus caught fire while he was charging it”
He probably bought a 4th party charger.
I think you mean a third party charger. The 4th party one would be like Dr Who.
3rd party charger and probably had the phone under his pillow…
I will say, the iPhone 6s gets unusually hot when charging though. What I will do though is not leave it on the bed and do not change it overnight since the lightening cable charges very fast anyway.
Nonsense. This is not normal behavior. Take your phone in for examination and/or repair.
Excessive heat may occur while you’re charging AND using power consuming apps at the same time. If this situation happens even when you’ve manually quitted all apps, take your phone to the store for examination ASAP.
So what? This is an industry problem, not an Apple problem per se. Overheating Li ion batteries have been documented all over the world. It grounded the new Boeing 787 Dreamliner for months. Hover boards are banned on most commercial airlines because of it. All smartphone manufacturers have the issue. All laptop manufacturers have the issue. All mobile devices powered by Li ion batteries are at risk. Until Li ion is replaced by better technology these reports will continue to come in.
Had a Li-Ion battery in both a Macbook and an iPhone swell and blow in the same week.
Maybe the dude spilled water on charger port that coused it exploded and fire
This may happen to anyone. Battery is not a solid brick and it’s fragile. It may be damaged when you drop your phone or clash into something. The effect may not be instantaneous though.
Wow – he shouldn’t have replaced his unit – he got Rose Gold on the older model :-)