iPhone 4 Bursts into Flames

David W. Martin ()

iPhone 4 Bursts into Flames

As if the antenna and proximity sensor woes weren’t enough now we can add one other issue to the pile of iPhone 4 woes: catching fire. BGR reported today that one unlucky iPhone 4 owner ended up with a “fried iPhone 4’ and a “slightly burned” hand.

According to the story the customer attempted to get help with the iPhone 4 by bringing it into a local store, but it was to far gone to be repaired. The incident occurred while the user was plugging the iPhone 4 into their computer using the Apple USB cable that came with it.  The conclusion was that the USB port on the iPhone 4  was probably defective and while the iPhone 4 suffered some damage the cable seems to have been damaged the most.

This isn’t the first time that an iDevice has caught fire, since 2009 there have been a number of reported incidents that included: an iPod Nano recall for faulty batteries (Apple eventually updated the battery warning on that recall) and an iPhone 3G also caught on fire ironically at the same spot as this years iPhone 4 — the USB port. Additionally in 2009 a Mac Laptop went up in flames.

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While this could happen based on prior reports about the iPhone 3G and iPod Nano it isn’t likely going to happen to you. However, if you are overly worried about things like this then you might consider keeping a pair of oven mitts and a bucket of water (or chemical extinguisher per the comments) handy just in case.

17 comments »

About the author

dwmartin

David W. Martin has more than 20 years of experience in the industry as a programmer, systems and business analyst, author, and consultant. David has written for CNET's iPhoneatlas.com and MacLife.com he currently writes for CultofMac.com and BYTE.com. He comes to Cult of Mac's website with deep knowledge and passion for the all things Apple. Follow David on Twitter @david_w_martin.

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Posted in iPhone 4, News | Tagged: , , , , |

  • http://www.markpeden.com Mark Peden

    They were clearly holding it wrong.
    These things happen.
    It is not an issue.
    : – )

  • Giorgio

    According to other articles on the web, it was the USB port on the computer which was the cause, not the “usb port on the iPhone 4″ as reported here. Not that this matters, of course—by tomorrow, all sorts of panic stories of iPhone 4s catching fire will be rampant through the media.

  • Machete9236

    @Mark: Hahaha! Nice.

  • JDS

    Oh come on folks! I am sure there are other non apple devices that catch fire. Lets hear about those too.

  • Kavok

    I doubt the iPhone 4 is the culprit here. I had one of these cables melt on me with my iPhone 2G. The problem was the cable insulation broke away from the connector and caused the shielding to short out the plug. Apple was very quick to send me a new cable and wanted to make sure nothing else happened to me or the iPhone.

    I have a newer cable that has the same issue, but it hasn’t melted on me yet (but then I don’t use it that often now either.)

  • Bree

    I had head the iPhone 4 was hot, but who knew it was *hot*

    Seriously though-
    I’m with the cable theory. I just had to bring in my mag safe cable for my Macbook Pro b/c it got so hot it melted the plastic casing off. Probably Apple needs to take a look and see if they are using wiring that can handle the loads their devices put on it.

    We also have issues w/ our iPod/iPhone cable covers separating at the plug/cord juncture. I suppose Apple is trying to cut corners somewhere…

  • Matthew

    You shouldn’t use water on electrical fires. that’s why I always carry a bag of baking soda with my iphone. seriously. No really. http://www.ehow.com/how_2050461_put-out-electrical-fire.html

    yeah. Someone should integrate a tiny C-class fire extinguisher into a iphone case, because this is obviously a real and serious problem that happens often.

    Not being sarcastic here. Nope.

  • Rob

    the connector was dunked in water, plugged into the phone from the 10 amp wall plug transformer….
    I’ve seen electrical fires with plastic and water and this looks exactly the same as what happens to the once wet plastic and connector prongs… what a waste of product for a dumb white-anting Fandroid story…

  • Rob

    Matt… really…. why don’t we all just carry around strap on extinguishers for our mobile phones… or maybe have retardant dunk-bays for our electronics???.. or even better to wrap all our gadgets in fire retardant bags [Think LiPo batteries]… so then we can’t make use of them but we’d still be protected from the 1 in a billion chance that the above mentioned [engineered iPhone explosion] would occur… or that when some dumbo misuses a phone deliberately…

    Better yet… dumbo’s who do these things should have their gadgets blended and returned to them as dust with no refund!

  • the flying macaroni

    If someone drops an iPhone 4 on their toe and knocks a hair out of place, they’ll take photos and write a headline about it to attract the jealously-flies. Pour them a tall glass of Haterade and keep them coming. Their thirst is predictably unquenchable.

  • Rob

    And you guys – Cult of Mac, that is – make a story out of this stuff. Cult of the Sensational Bloggers, more like it. Go find some news, do something creative.

  • http://www.e-panda.com 16_NBA_titles

    Ugh, this is getting ugly but I hope it won’t be a massive problem like the Death Grip. Or how you call this? Death USB. Death Charge?

    Or just get a case so your hand won’t have direct exposure if anything happens. I got 2 from e-panda.com.

    P/S Steve Jobs might say it again, solution is “get a case”

  • Marky Mark

    err… not water on an electrical fire. Not unless you want to end up the same way as that cable.

  • John

    Meh, One collee at work nearly had hi 3G go up in smoke when dicking to a charger. Luckily he smelled the hot platic smell before it actually melted, but it blackedned an discoloured the cable. No fault that we could find in the phone or the USB ports, so he ditched the cable.

  • http://www.davidwmartin.com David W. Martin

    Ok question for the Firefighters out there, but first a little background.

    If you should not use water on an electrical fire and I’ve seen data centers that have removed the Halon gas systems only to replace them with a dry charged overhead water based sprinkler systems. These systems work in two or three stages. Alarm. Charge System with water. A certain temperature is reached and the water is released onto the contents of the data center to put out the fire. This includes servers, etc. all running on electricity, etc

    So how is that different from this scenario about electrical fires? Something for you to think about.

    Also I had an iPhone cable that frayed once displaying the insulating shield under the rubber/plastic cable coating. No wiring was visible. I showed it to an Apple store Genius and they replaced it right there on the spot. Additionally the iPhone 3G or 3GS had the A/C adapter recalled. They were passing out new ones with a green dot on them — again probably due to an electrical issue if I recall correctly.

    Thanks for all the comments.

  • MacNewton

    Lets just say, that the story behind this situations is a case of misinformation. The user was plugging it into a USB 3 port on his PC. The port was at fault, not the i 4.

  • Shayne

    Yeah. I’m glad there weren’t reports of previous iPods and iPhones catching fire. This is just an isolated incident. Nothing to see here. Move along.