The risk involved in using a phone while charging has been highlighted with the death of a man who died after his iPhone overheated and burst into flames.
A man with terminal cancer who relied on his phone as his lifeline
was killed when his iPhone overheated and burst into flames, a coroner
has heard.
Marek Kruger was fast asleep in his bed when his phone’s battery
ignited and sparked a fire, leaving him with burns of more than 60 per
cent on his body.
The 53-year-old, from Poland, had been charging his phone under his
bed covers when the killer fire was started at his Reading flat. His
son, Przemyslaw, had been upstairs at a friend’s flat in the same
building when they first smelled burning plastic at around 12.45am. He
rushed downstairs to find fire crews already on scene after neighbours
raised the alarm.
Paramedics took over minutes later but Marek was pronounced dead at
the scene at 1.14am on August 9, 2015. Marek had been unable to walk
after suffering from a brain tumour and was sleeping in a specialist
hospital bed installed in his flat.
An inquest heard that he died of injuries sustained by the ‘slow and smouldering’ fire which engulfed him and some of his bed.
His wife, Iryna, said that his phone was a lifeline for the bed-bound father-of-two.
Iryna said: ‘He used to put the phone and wallet just under the pillow because he wanted to have his phone next to him.
‘He felt unsafe sometimes when the girls [his carers] had not been around and I was at work.’
Jonathan Fuguet, a consultant scientific adviser, told the coroner
that the phone had burst into flames because it had been covered while
on charge.
‘The heat generated by the phone while charging could not
dissipate because of the insulation – almost like putting it into a fire
but much, much slower.’
No faults were found in either the phone or the charger and Mr
Fuguet pointed to Apple’s advice that devices be kept below 35°C and are
not covered while charging.
Metro.co.uk have contacted Apple for comment.
Source: Metro
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