A report in the Portland Press Herald says that an eighth-grade girl from Kennebunk received burns on her thigh and back and was taken to hospital for treatment, all because her iPhone caught fire in her pants pocket before her class at school.
The 14-year old teenager’s mother, Judy Milligan, told the newspaper that she was shocked by the news but did not want to release her daughter’s name to the public.
The girl had been sitting down for a French class on Friday morning when she heard a popping sound from the iPhone 5C, a present from her mother two months earlier.
Smoke started to billow out and the girl knew something was wrong. The girl was smart enough to stop, drop and roll to stamp out the fire. She took off her pants and the other girls in the class shielded her while the boys were sent out of the class.
The phone did fall out of the girl’s pants and was still smoldering. Fortunately, through her actions the girl avoided any further serious injuries.
Not much word on the hows or whys except some conjecture, but we do know the phone was relatively new, and didn’t have any third party parts.
