Boy Burned After Cell Phone Explodes in Pocket

[Mike Temporale]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.local6.com/news/4434305/detail.html' target='_blank'>http://www.local6.com/news/4434305/detail.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"A 10-year-old boy in Sherman Oaks, Calif., suffered first-degree burns on his leg and groin area when a cell phone exploded in his pocket, according to a Local 6 News report. Leobarda Villalobos recently purchased a Motorola phone for her son, Yovani. At some point, the phone exploded in Yovani's pants. The family is trying to determine what could have gone wrong since the cell phone has not been recalled, according to the report. Motorola officials are not commenting."</i><br /><br />I'm not sure what to think about this. On one hand, I think it's a terrible that this has happened, especially to such a young person. On the other hand, I've never seen or heard of someone having their battery explode (Nokia non-OEM batteries excluded). Think of all the things that you use everyday that have batteries in them like laptops, portable music players, cell phones, cordless phones, watches, PDA's. I've have never had one of these explode. Nor have I known someone who has experienced such an activity. It's my guess that something else contributed to this. Maybe he had a lighter in his pocket too. I feel sorry for this boy, but I highly doubt this was caused by just a cell phone.

[David McNamee]

Anything is possible, but there are many things that are highly improbable. There isn't nearly enough information in that article to make a judgement. Where was the phone purchased? Was it new or used? Did it have an OEM battery?

Of course, it's a really good reason to not keep anything but keys and hands in your pocket...

[Sven Johannsen]

OOO! I see a booming (intended) market for ballistic cell phone holsters and laptop bags.

I feel for the kid too, but as has been mentioned there isn't enough detail to understand the situation. Batteries explode due to excessive heat. Excessive heat can come from excessive current flow, which could be a defect in the device being powered or the battery itself. On the device side yould tink there would be current limiting circuitry, if for no other reason than to protect the device.

[JoshB]

This was on the local news the other night, along with interviews, and some photos of the "damage". Apparently, the boy was playing soccer, or otherwise running around, when he FELL DOWN and LANDED SQUARELY ON THE CELLPHONE IN HIS POCKET. Some undisclosed period of time later, he felt "burning" on his leg, and pulled out the remains of the smashed cell phone.

I could be wrong here, but this doesn't sound like his Moto spontaneously did a hand grenade impression and exploded. Sounds like he got chemical burns from the smashed battery and/or LCD on the phone when he FELL ON IT.

[SnozBerries]

I quickly replaced my previous cell phone, a vintage Samsung from the year 2000, because the battery started warping. I think it started when I was on a 4 hour road trip where I had it plugged into the cigarette lighter for the full trip. The charger must have continued charging the phone after it was full, because the next day I noticed the phone would no longer sit flat on the counter because the battery started puff up in size. If I had kept the phone, I bet the battery would have eventually started leaking, perhaps even exploding.