Battery Explosion Archives - Gizmochina

Smartphone explosion injures 3 in India, shatters windows of cars parked outside

Sean — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 12:10:46 +0000

A smartphone and a can of deodorant led to an explosion that injured a couple of people inside and even managed to break the windows of cars that were parked outside. The incident took place in India, so here’s what went wrong.

Unknown Smartphone explodes in Nashik

The explosion occurred in a house that was situated in Nashik, Maharashtra. Usually, when such a device explodes, the damage is restricted to the immediate area or the person carrying it. However, the blast inside a home in Nashik had a much wider impact. According to an NDTV report, the mobile phone exploded inside a house in Nashik, which ended up injuring three people inside the residence.

The individuals suffered from a couple of serious injuries, which are currently being treated at a hospital. As of right now, the exact model of this handset is still unclear. Furthermore, the smartphone alone wasn’t the cause of such a large explosion. Apparently, a can of deodorant was in close proximity to the device. For those unaware, deodorant is a highly flammable product, with any small contact or even spark potentially leading to an explosion. Thus, the blast blew out the window near the smartphone which was being charged and even damaged the windows out side the house as well.

The cars that were parked around the house were also affected by the blast, with some of the cars having all of their window panels shattered. The image shared in the report reveals that the metal railings and furniture in the house were also burnt. But thankfully, there were no casualties caused by this explosion. The exact reason for the blast is still unclear at the moment, so stick around for more updates. Earlier this year, we reported on the OnePlus Nord 2 explosion and a Xiaomi device overheating and reportedly killing an 8-year-old child in China.

Apple MacBook Pro spontaneously bursts into flames, almost takes user’s life

Sean — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 08:36:06 +0000

An owner of an Apple MacBook Pro has just recently suffered from minor injuries as their laptop’s battery spontaneously combusted into flames. The laptop in question was the 2015 MacBook Pro.

For those unaware, this was the same model that was banned from some airlines as its battery was considered a potential fire hazard. Reddit user u/Squeezieful shared the details of the event on the social media platform. He showed his hands that faces minor burns after trying to remove the burning laptop from under their bed. While the users only faced minor injuries, the potential damage could’ve been quite big as the flames would possibly have led to major property damage (such as a house fire) or even worse injuries.

According to the user, the MacBook Pro was placed under the bed in sleep mode and was not on charging. But then, the owner was woken up by the fumes caused by the melting plastic case of the laptop and likely due to the burning lithium ion battery as well. This prompted him to remove the notebook from under the bed, which even caused the owner’s carpet to be burned. The Reddit user can be considered lucky as he noticed the smoke, but the toxic fumes and fire could have been fatal. Back in 2015, Apple had issued a large recall for its 15 inch MacBook Pro laptops that were sold between September 2015 and February 2016.

The recall arrived as a number of MacBook Pro units started facing incidents such as swelling and exploding. This even caused damage to property and got the model labelled as a fire hazard. Meaning, the unlucky incident that took place recently was likely due to user owning this faulty version of the MacBook Pro. But while it might be easy to say that the owner should’ve just returned it before, the Reddit user stated that his laptop had been “already been serviced for this issue,” when he had submitted its model number into the battery recall program form. Now, it remains to be seen how Apple responds to this matter.

[UPDATE: Official Statement] POCO M3 explodes in India, blast reason under investigation

Sudhanshu — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 18:01:19 +0000

UPDATE:

Here’s the official statement from POCO regarding this matter.

“At POCO India, customer safety is of utmost importance and we take such matters extremely seriously.

At this stage, our team contacted the concerned customer as soon as the issue was notified and is awaiting his visit to the nearest service center. We are committed to examine the issue in detail, and extend all our support to the customer and resolve this on priority.

All our devices go through various levels of stringent quality tests to ensure that the quality of the device is not compromised at any level.”

[Original Story] Smartphones exploding or catching fire have been in the news throughout the year. Be it the case of a vivo phone catching fire while shipping or the OnePlus Nord 2 blasting in the pocket of someone’s trousers.

Image via 91mobiles

A similar incident occurred in India on November 27 when a POCO M3 caught on fire (via 91Mobiles) and exploded. The incident was shared on Twitter by the alleged victim’s brother Mahesh (@Mahesh08716488). In the now-deleted tweet, the user does not mention any details of the incident or what made the phone catch fire. POCO acknowledged the issue and replied to the tweet, saying that customers’ safety is very important and that it takes such matters seriously.

Mahesh shared an image of a burned POCO M3, which shows severe damage to the phone with the middle and bottom parts of the phone’s rear completely incenerated. No information has been provided of anyone being hurt or injured due to this incident.

This is not the first time a POCO phone has gone up in flames in India this year, as a similar incident happened in September involving a POCO X3. These frequent incidents paint a bad picture of the China-based Brand, putting into question the quality and safety testing standards of these devices supplied to the subcontinent.

OnePlus Nord 2 unit explodes in India, causes trauma to owner

Sean — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 07:58:25 +0000

A new OnePlus Nord 2 smartphone has apparently exploded, which caused the owner to suffer from trauma. The owner in question is Ankur Sharma from Bengaluru, India who shared the incident on Twitter (now deleted).

While Sharma deleted the tweet, LetsGoDigital managed to share the original images posted by the Indian user. As per the tweet, Sharma’s wife faced an accident due to this incident, which also traumatized her. His wife had went cycling in the morning, when all of a sudden, the Nord 2 in her sling starts exploded, with smoke coming out of the device. Looking at the images shared in the tweet, it is clear that the battery of the Nord 2 exploded when she was cycling.

Furthermore, the Nord 2 unit from the Chinese brand appears to be utterly destroyed, with its rear panel being charred and burned offering us a glimpse of the damaged internal components as well. At the moment, it is unknown what exactly caused this explosion. Keep in mind, this could be an isolated event, which is something that has occurred in the past for other smartphones. Back in July 2021, an Oppo A53 had also exploded in a users pocket, which was another such isolated incident.

In other words, the other Nord 2 units that are in circulation are likely not in any risk of exploding spontaneously. As of right now, OnePlus has yet to offer any statements regarding its own investigation into this incident. Although, the company did extend its apologies to Ankur through a tweet offering “amends.” So stay tuned for more updates regarding this matter.

Apple is getting sued for iPhone 6 battery explosion caused by alleged defect

Jeet — Fri, 07 May 2021 06:16:46 +0000

An iPhone user named Robert Franklin in Texas, United States is seeking a class-action lawsuit against the tech giant Apple for allegedly selling defective batteries and violating its warranty promises after his smartphone exploded in his face a couple of years ago in 2019.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas on Thursday, reports Appleinsider. It claims that the iPhone 6’s battery “contains a defect which makes it unable to reliably perform its function.”

It is seeking class-action status and a jury trial and asks for damages for the allegedly defective iPhone 6 and its battery, incidental damages for replacement devices, and attorneys’ fees and court costs.

It further alleges that the defect creates danger of explosion and fire. In the complaint, Robert Franklin of Hopkins County, Texas says that he had his iPhone 6 device explode in August 2019. It adds: “Robert Franklin was listening to music on his iPhone 6 when he noticed the music playing on his iPhone began to skip. As he picked up his iPhone to investigate, [it] suddenly exploded and caught fire in his face.”

The lawsuit adds that the plaintiff suffered injuries to his eyes and wrist as a result of the incident. The injury on the wrist occurred because the fire caused him to fall, during which Franklin used his hand to brace himself. He reportedly suffered economic loss due to the incident which includes the cost to replace iPhone and medical treatment for his injuries.

Apple started selling the iPhone 6 in 2015 and the plaintiff reportedly purchased it in 2018 — a year before the incident occurred. At this time, it is not clear what condition the phone was in prior to the explosion.

Apple is in violation of Texas law as it sold unmerchantable products, claims the lawsuit. It further alleges that Apple’s warranty claims that the iPhone 6 would be free from defects but it turned out to be untrue.