Samsung Phone Allegedly Catches Fire As Woman Drives Destroying Her Car
A woman from Detroit, Michigan was driving her car Friday when she claims that one of her cell phones caught fire. The result of the alleged smartphone explosion is a burned-out husk of a car that is clearly totaled. The woman says she is just glad to have escaped the burning vehicle with her life.
ABC News reports that the woman has chosen to remain anonymous, but did speak to a Detroit ABC affiliate Friday after the fire and has said she is considering a lawsuit. The woman had two cellular phones in the car, both Samsung devices. One was a Galaxy S4 and the other a Galaxy S8; both were sitting in cup holders when the fire started. The woman claims that she was driving and saw a spark from one of the devices and one of the phones caught fire.
The woman told ABC affiliate WXYZ, "I thought I was going to die when I saw the sparks and the fire. It happened quickly. It just went up in flames. People were telling me to get away from the car. What if I was on the highway stuck in traffic and couldn't get out?"
The woman was able to pull over to the side of the road and the car was reportedly quickly engulfed in flames. The ABC affiliate the woman spoke to reports that the Detroit Fire Department did confirm that it had responded to the fire. Samsung has had issues with phones catching fire, but the fire risk was associated with the Galaxy Note 7. Samsung eventually determined irregularly sized batteries were the cause for those devices catching fire. The Galaxy S4 and S8 haven't been placed on any recall lists and there are no known reports of the devices catching fire. Samsung is investigating the incident.
Samsung said in a statement, "We stand behind the quality and safety of the millions of Samsung phones in the U.S. We are eager to conduct a full investigation of this matter and until we are able to examine all of the evidence, it is impossible to determine the true cause of any incident."
The woman has hired attorney Gerald Thurswell, and he expects a recall to be issued once the investigation is finished. Thurswell has also stated that they have reached out to Samsung and that they may file a lawsuit.
"We've contacted Samsung. They've been very responsible and sent a crew to examine the car and portions of the phone," Thurswell told WXYZ. "Once it's determined which of the phones [caught fire] and that one is recalled, we'll probably save lives."
