iPhone Catches Fire: Fluke or Safety Hazard?

By Nicole Martinelli (11:36 pm, Mar 02 2009)

Tim Colburne plugged in his iPhone 3G to his computer’s USB port and left it to charge. Three hours later, it caught fire. The above is an aftermath pic.

Colburne writes on his blog: “The fire started in the space between the lead and the phone and resulted in a couple of pins fusing together.

Although the main functions of the phone are apparently unaffected, the device won’t connect to the computer which means I can neither charge it nor transfer data. Result: one dead iPhone.”

Colburne reckons very few iPhones go up in flames, he was able to find one other similar incident on a site from Sweden in 2008.

Anyone else?

And if your iPhone did go into meltdown, how did getting a replacement go?

Via A Roman Thought

8 comments »

About the author

Nicole Martinelli is a San Francisco native who has lived in Milan and Florence, Italy. She's written for Wired.com, The New York Times and Newsweek. You can find her on Twitter , Facebook and Google+.

If you're doing something new/cool that's Apple related, email her about it.

(sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address)| Read more posts by Nicole Martinelli.

Posted in iPhone 3G | Tagged: iphone catches fire, iphone malfunction |

Nicolae
Doesn’t even look like a real (original) iPhone from the picture … does it have some kind of a screen cover or was an incredibly good deal from China ?
Me
A similar thing happened to a friend with a 3G. It didn’t happen randomly though. It happened because his baby put the connector in her mouth before he plugged it in. I suppose the wet contacts flipped out. Not sure if he plugged it in knowing it was wet or how he worked out she did that if he didn’t know it was wet…
Weston
I had this exact thing happen to my iPod mini a few years back. Even though it was a completely different product, it was the connection between the cable and the ipod that caused it. I called up Apple and they seemed shocked, however, I never got the impression that they didn’t believe me. They issued a replacement immediately and asked if I would send them some photos of the product. I then sent the iPod back in the box after the new one arrived. Very painless, what else is to be expected from Apple?
Justin
I get lint and fluff in the socket of mine all the time – I guess it gathers from my pocket lining. Could it be that a spark or something ignited the fibres?
Icebike
You can’t do this much damage with the 5 volts 500ma supplied by the computer’s USB headers.
But you can do a lot of damage with a computer on a floating ground, where the computer chassis is not on power-grid ground.
The iphone is not at fault here. The computer is.
My bet is that a meter between the computer’s chassis to the ground lug of a properly grounded circuit shows a significant power draw. It’s dangerous. The computer and house wiring needs to be looked at.
Marg
This one is real burning fire!!!!!!! I am more interested in the screen cover though. Read this to know how funny are things these days… http://www.iphonefootprint.com/2009/03/confusion-at-the-app-store-apple-rejects-its-own-apps/
Need Help
My iphone 3G charger did the same thing! I purchased the iphone in November 08, it’s 4 months old, just a few nights ago, I came home and went to plug my iphone into the charger (that was plugged into the outlet) when I noticed the end of the adapter cord that plugs into the phone had seriously caught fire. My phone was not plugged into the charger when it caught fire, the phone and I weren’t even home!
The next day I took the charger into Apple, what was weird was no one was alarmed by my charger being melted down, plasic charred chunks inside the metal tip of the adapter. It was very robotic in their reactions, in fact, I was told they only knew of two of these cases ever happening, and one of the cases from water getting on the metal portion, the other from it bending while plugged into the laptop. Apple Corporate explained this incident as rare to me. My cord was exchanged out without hassle, but, I am worried about the new cord as well. I am on edge, will not charge overnight or absent from the house. Will only charge under supervision, it’s a cell phone! I have too many other things to do and worry about rather than a cell phone charging in a completely safe area! What is going on? Again, I was told that I was a rare case, now that I have looked this problem up, a lot of people are having the exact same problem. Seriously, how are iphone owners dealing with this?
Thernand2010
Two of mine caught fire, don’t know if the phone will still charge after the last one.