Apple is in hot water after a customer from Ohio, the US, claimed that his three-week-old iPhone exploded while it was still in his trouser pocket.
Josh Hillard, the complainant, said that he was at work when he noticed a strange smell emanating from his back pocket (where his phone was kept) and then felt intense heat on his leg. Hillard went to say that moments later, the phone started to emanate yellow and green smoke.
@Apple iPhone X just got hot and exploded in the process of upgrading to 12.1 IOS. What’s going on here??? pic.twitter.com/OhljIICJan
— Rocky Mohamadali (@rocky_mohamad) November 14, 2018
"Left with no other option, I had to exit the room since there was a female in the break room with me and remove my pants. I ran to the boardroom where I got my shoes and pants off as fast as possible. A VP of our company put the fire out with a fire extinguisher because he heard me yelling," Hillard was quoted as saying by iDropnews.com.
He went on to say, "Once the phone was extinguished, I was left with a hole in my pants, fire extinguisher on my pants/shoes, and some pain/irritation in my buttocks region where the pocket of my pants was located."
Hillard has taken the issue up with Apple. He had visited the shop where he bought the phone from and demanded an explanation. The woman-in-charge there told him that he would be out in touch with the senior tech. The staff then took the phone to try and do some damage control.
When they got back, they said that they will send the phone to the engineering team and offered Hillard a replacement phone.
Hillard also went to the doctor to get a complete check-up since he was in direct contact with the phone and also inhaled a lot of smoke.
He said, "From the time of first noticing the fire and between removal of the pants and taking the phone out of my pocket and placing it outside, I inhaled A LOT of smoke. Later in the day, the team told me about the video that the office security camera captured."
He is also suffering from minor injuries in his buttock region.
According to iDropnews.com, Hilliard said that a replacement phone is not the answer and he is planning on suing the company.
