A twitter user Brianna Olivas has shared a video depicting an iPhone 7 Plus catching fire. It shows the device is burning up to a point where the case is melting away and smoke is coming out from both sides of the phone.
Olivia explained that she had been facing problems with her newly purchased iPhone 7 Plus since the day before it blew up. She said the device was not turning on, so she went to the local Apple store to get it fixed. After running some tests on the phone, the Apple store employees concluded that everything was fine and the device also started functioning.
The next morning, however, things went south.
"The next morning I was asleep with my phone charging next to my head, my boyfriend grabbed the phone and put it on the dresser. He went to the restroom and from the corner of his eye he saw my phone steaming and heard a squealing noise. By the time he got over to the phone it had already caught fire, he quickly grabbed the phone and threw it in the restroom. As soon as he threw it in the restroom is blew up and more smoke started coming out of the phone," Olivas told Mashable.
Following the incident she handed it over to Apple, who is now testing and expecting to get back to Olivas with a proper explanation and solution.
In a brief statement to Mashable, an Apple spokesperson has said that the company is being in touch with the customer and "looking into it".
Although, this is not the first time an iPhone catching fire has been in the news. In December 2016, The Shanghai Consumer Council had released a report citing that there has been battery fires in eight iPhone 6 handsets and also how the iPhone 6 handsets powering down before their batteries are depleted but Apple brushed these allegations aside saying that these were due to external factors.
So my IPhone 7 plus blew up this morning ? was not even using it, literally no explanation for this pic.twitter.com/sQ8CJt4Y69
— Bree✨ (@briannaolivas_) February 23, 2017
The memory of Samsung Galaxy Note 7 disaster is is still fresh among smartphone users, but there is no evidence at this point that proves what Olivas experienced is part of a widespread problem. After the Note 7 disaster there's been an increased focus on smartphones catching fire, but this is definitely not of that magnitude.
