My wife currently works as a customer service assistant in a local town. While she was working last week, she could hear a commotion outside in the street. A member of the public came running into to her office, screaming for help and requesting a fire extinguisher stating that there’d been an explosion just outside the office. Once outside my wife saw a young lady with a smouldering bag and a very badly burned thigh which ended up needing an ambulance and hospital treatment.
Now West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service have released CCTV footage from a local Boots store showing a very similar occurrence, The footage shows an e-cigarette battery exploding in a mans pocket, luckily only causing minor injuries in this case…
https://youtu.be/kC83SKcM_TM
Fire investigator Jamie Lister said..
This is not the first time we have seen injuries caused by a lithium-ion battery exploding whilst being carried in someone’s pocket. There does not need to be a fault with the battery, the problem is the incorrect storage of the batteries.
Also hitting the news over from the USA are reports of a Samsung S6 Edge catching fire while the user slept in the bed next to the device, causing damage to the bedside unit.
The user states that he had the device on charge overnight using the supplied AC charger. He said..
I woke up this morning just in time to get ready for work and looked over to find my phone has exploded. Luckily I don’t keep it on my bed, as you can see it scorched my night stand. I’ve talked to Samsung and my carrier. The phone had no problems before, no overheating. I think I’m done with Samsung for a while.
Is battery safety on the decline? To be honest since all this news I don’t use the “Dash” charging on my OnePlus 3 unless I have to. I prefer the slower trickle charge option.
Sources BBC News & Android Central