iPhone 5C Sets on Fire in School Girl’s Pocket
The girl is treated for second-degree burns at a Biddeford hospital.
A middle school student in Kennebunk suffered second-degree burns
Friday when her iPhone caught fire in her pants pocket just before a
class, said her family and school officials. The eighth-grader sustained burns on one thigh and her back, and
was taken to Southern Maine Health Care in Biddeford for treatment. Her
mother, Judy Milligan, said, “I was a little bit in shock” when the
school notified her about the fire. She said she preferred not to
release her daughter’s name.
The 14-year-old girl had sat down
just before her first-period French class Friday morning when she and
her friends sitting nearby heard a pop from the Apple iPhone 5C she had
been given by her mother two months earlier.
“Immediately, smoke
starts billowing from around the student,” said Jeff Rodman, principal
of the Middle School of the Kennebunks. “She knew right away something
was wrong and, in a panic, knew her pants were on fire caused by the
cellphone.”
The girl had to take off the pants, so girls in the
class helped her into a corner of the room while others herded the boys
from the room and summoned a teacher, who was standing just outside the
door, Rodman said.
“It was sensitive. She knew she was kind of in a tough situation,” he said.
Teachers came to help, and someone in the main office called 911.
The
girl had the presence of mind to “stop, drop and roll,” Rodman said,
which reduced the flames and the injuries she suffered. “The phone fell
out of her pocket ... and it was still smoldering. Her pants were still
on fire,” he said.
Once the pants were off, one teacher wrapped
the girl in a blanket while they waited for rescue workers and
firefighters to arrive.
School officials declared a “hold in
place,” so students could not leave their classrooms and emergency
workers could get in and out of the building quickly, Rodman said.
The
girl was taken to the hospital in Biddeford, where she was treated for
what her mother said were second-degree burns. She was released after
about 45 minutes.
She asked to return to class, her mother said, but school officials and health care workers encouraged her to go home.
“She’s very calm – just a calm person,” Milligan said.
A call to Apple headquarters was not returned by press time.
An investigator with the state Fire Marshal’s Office took pictures of the phone.
Andrew
Rosenstein, owner of TechPort in Portland, which repairs Apple
products, said customers have brought in batteries that were swollen and
at risk of malfunction after extended use, but not from a phone that
was almost new.
“There’s basically a lithium-ion type
rechargeable battery built in (to an iPhone). The battery, as it charges
and discharges, it’s really a chemical reaction that can generate
heat,” Rosenstein said. “It’s very rare there can be an issue, but any
battery is just a chemical composition that can be flammable in extreme
circumstances.”
Rosenstein said his business uses a fireproof box
to store batteries from devices that are being repaired, so fire cannot
spread if they somehow ignite.
There have been sporadic reports of phone fires, though typically the phones that caught fire were being charged.
The
most notable malfunctions of lithium ion batteries were aboard two 787
Boeing Dreamliners, causing fires that led to the grounding of the
aircraft.
Rosenstein couldn’t say what would have caused the
battery in the eighth-grader’s phone to burn. He said there’s nothing
else in the phone that could cause a fire. “These batteries installed in
Apple products in particular are extremely safe. It’s an extremely rare
incident,” he said.
Milligan said her daughter is an honor
student and enjoys school, especially French class. She also is a
competitive swimmer with the Biddeford Manta Rays, and had to miss
Friday’s practice and Saturday’s meet in Belfast.
Milligan said she almost didn’t get the call from the school telling her that her daughter had been burned.
When
she left the house Friday morning with her daughter and son, she
realized she had left her cellphone in the house. She contemplated going
without it for the day, but instead ran inside to grab it. In the
middle of her hour-long drive to work, she got the call.
The iPhone, which was green and is now black, is useless. So are the pants, which Milligan agreed to replace.
“We went to Target and got a pair of yoga pants,” she said.
EnjOy..:)
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