The case of a Samsung Galaxy S3 exploding into flames was admittedly reported by the owner as a hoax. An Ireland user said that the damage was caused by a third party energy source and not from the phone itself.
Initially when the report came in, an Irish user said that his Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone burst into flames as he was driving. Images posted online depicted a burnt phone and melted phone case.
"So I driving along today with my Galaxy S3 in my car mount when suddenly a white flame, sparks and a bang came out of the phone. I pulled in to look at my phone, the phone burned from the inside out. Burned through the plastic and melted my case to my phone. The phone kept working but without any signal," reported the user.
Samsung initiated an investigation of the case saying "We are committed to providing our customers with the safest products possible and are looking at this seriously."
After the truth emerged, Samsung posted on its official blog that the source of damage was not from the phone but an external source. The amount of damage done to the phone could be caused by cooking it in a microwave.
The user admitted online that he was at fault for the damages and removed the original posting.
"I would like to retract my original statement. The damage to the phone was caused by another person, although they were attempting to recover the phone from water this later caused the damage shown on the phone. It occurred due to a large amount of external energy and there was no fault with the phone. This was not a deliberate act but a stupid mistake," the user posted on Boards.ie forum.
Samsung collaborated with Fire Investigation UK to conduct tests in uncovering the truth. After testing, the conclusion was that a third party device was the cause.
"The energy source responsible for generating the heat has been determined as external to the device... The device was not responsible for the cause of the fire," Fire Investigation UK stated in the final report. "The only way it was possible to produce damage similar to the damage recorded within the owner's damaged device was to place the devices or component parts within a domestic microwave."
Earlier there were other related burnouts for smartphones including the iPhone 4s. A video posted on YouTube showed 17-year-old Henri Helminen, spotting smoke emerging from his iPhone. He immediately threw the device on the ground before any injuries occurred.
Still, it has to be confirmed how the phone started burning on its own. In theory, lithium batteries can undergo leakage or breakage and could catch fire because of many reasons. However, it is very rare to find such incidents on other devices.
"However, it's unclear if the device in question actually is an iPhone 4S, or if it exploded of its own accord for that matter. But it is clear that the man's pocket was on fire," said Mashable.
Mobile devices are being built with more power nowadays and the tradeoff is higher temperature. Though as hot as the device may reach, it may not be possible to reach high enough temperatures to ignite flames.
