Girl’s Galaxy S4 smartphone burns under her pillow as she sleeps

Last week, a 13-year-old girl from Texas plugged her Samsung Galaxy S4 in for its nightly charge before falling asleep, only to be awoken by the smell of something burning hours later. When she got up and searched around for the source of the smell, she realized that she had wedged her charging phone under her pillow. And not only was the underneath of the pillow scorched, but the phone was fried into an unrecognizable slab of plastic and melted components.

The event left the family a bit surprised, “We have a reasonable expectation that the products we buy are going to be safe,” the girl’s father said. He said that he suspects that the phone overheated, causing the battery to swell and start a fire. The battery in the Galaxy phone was a replacement one, something a Samsung representative told them could have been part of the problem.

The other issue, according to Samsung, was that the phone was being smothered by a pillow, restricting airflow while charging. This is something the manufacturer warns against in the device’s instruction materials.

Despite the wrong phone handle by the young Galaxy owner, Samsung told Yahoo News that the company will replace the phone, the pillow, and the mattress involved in the accident.

“Samsung takes product quality and customer safety very seriously,” “We have offered the customer a new device, and we are working to retrieve the product so that we can investigate what happened.

We strongly advise all customers follow the guidelines of the user´s manual for care and handling wireless batteries. Additionally, Samsung´s user manuals warn customers that phones must have adequate ventilation and airflow and should not be covered with material such as bedding.”

But the Texan family should hope for better service than another user who recently posted a similar story has received. The owner alleges that his Galaxy S4 was also fried while charging, even though the charger and battery that came with it were in use. Now, despite being told by Samsung that the broken unit would be replaced, a month later, this person claims to be still waiting.

By Adriana Rueda

Source: Yahoo News

Image: Yahoo News