February 8, 2005
A cell phone explodes in jacket pocket
A 911 dispatcher in Ogden needed a little help of her own Sunday when the cell phone in her jacket exploded, a Motorola V-300 camera-phone, reports the Desert Morning News.
"The cell phone battery became so hot it burned through the phone and through her jacket, dropping onto the floor. The rest of the phone "shot across the room," leaving pieces everywhere, Munford said.
Most of the pieces were "glowing red hot," she said. The hot phone burned several holes in her jacket, burned the chair she was sitting in and the carpet.
Although incidents of cell phone explosions are rare, they are not unknown.
In November, a report by MSNBC said that federal officials had received 83 cases of cell phones exploding or catching fire over the past two years. The most common cause of those fires was incompatible, faulty or counterfeit batteries or charges, according to MSNBC."
Related articles and timeline of incidents reported around the world:
-- Nokia Sued Over Alleged Exploding Cell Phone - A Thailand newspaper said Finnish phone maker Nokia is being sued after one of the company's handsets allegedly exploded and seriously injured a Thai welder.
-- CPSC highlights dangers of exploding cell phone batteries - The Consumer Product Safety Commission is providing tips for cell phone users to avoid such accidents and has stepped up oversight of the wireless industry.
-- Cell phones: Too hot to handle? - Defective or counterfeit batteries have caused nearly all of the reported incidents, while others were caused by dropped phones, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
-- Kyocera recalls 1M phone batteries - October 2004, Kyocera Wireless, along with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, is recalling 1 million cell-phone batteries, pointing to concerns that some of the batteries supplied by the manufacturer may be counterfeit
-- Industry groups to address exploding phones September 2004, The mobile-phone industry and the The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers are expectedly shortly to announce plans to address exploding mobile phones
-- Kyocera phone blows up in South Carolina - September 2004, Another incident of an exploding cell phone battery, this time in the US. Shelley Kaehr was visiting South Carolina when her Kyocera cell phone, Model 2325, blew up and burned her hand
-- In August 2004 a Nokia handset exploded in Hong Kong and injured a man.
-- In July 2004, a man was injured when a mobile phone he was using exploded in Beijing..
-- On July 2nd, 2004, a 16-year-old California girl suffered second degree burns Thursday when her Verizon Kyocera cell phone caught on fire in her back pocket.
-- Verizon Wireless - on June 2004 and for the second time this year - recalled 50,000 cell phone batteries some of which may be counterfeit, after reports suggesting that they may cause minor fires and injuries.
-- Good Morning America reported in January 2004, that the phone manufacturer Kyocera was voluntarily recalling batteries for one of its phones, the first-ever recall of cell-phone batteries. About 140,000 batteries custom made for the Kyocera 7135 Smartphone were recalled.
-- Nokia has confirmed that one of its 3310 handsets, which exploded and caused minor injuries to a woman in Finland in November 2003.
-- In a rare accident in Amsterdam in August 2003 a mobile phone exploded in a woman's face causing burns to her face and neck.
-- In February 2003, Cellular News reported that Nokia had admitted that cases had been reported of non-original mobile phone batteries overheating in the European, African and Asian regions, causing damage to both batteries and Nokia phones.
-- An incident in Norway was reported by Belgian newspaper Le Soir, in November 2002, when the Nokia handeset of a 15 year-old boy exploded in class. His cell phone was equipped with a non Nokia battery. No one was hurt.
-- The first case tracked down of a cellphone fault causing an explosion occured in Taiwan in June 2002, injuring its owner, and reported by Cellular News. The woman appeared on ETTV television channel saying: "The phone heated up and I could feel the heat coming from my bag, but I did not pay attention because I was eating. A few minutes later it exploded. The hot debris burned my arms and feet."
The Permanent Link to this page is: http://www.textually.org/textually/archives/2005/02/007021.htm
