Hot on the heels of #bendgate, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) may have a new problem on its hands - #burngate. If entrepreneur and business coach Philip Lechter is to be believed, that is.
On his blog, Lechter maintains that his “Apple iPhone 6 bent and caught on fire in my front pocket”. Oops.
The incident, he narrates, happened on October 11, less than a month after he received his iPhone 6, while he was on a holiday in Arizona, enjoying a rickshaw ride.
As things would go, he maintains that the rickshaw he was in tipped over to the left because it hit a trolley track in the road. Lechter said the impact sent him into the side of the metal rickshaw (but not off it). The impact was enough, however, to bend his iPhone 6 by nearly 90-degrees, he says, puncturing the battery, and setting it on fire.
“I felt a burning sensation on my leg and then saw and smelled smoke from my pants. I surveyed the rickshaw quickly and could not find anything that could have set me on fire. Then it hit me, my phone was in my pocket. Somehow in the process of the tipping of the rickshaw my new Apple iPhone 6 had bent in my front pocket and caught on fire,” he states.
Someone even managed to record a short, 5-second video of the bent and burnt iPhone, on which a person seems to be pouring ice cubes.
“The smoke was thick and I quickly laid down to get the Apple iPhone 6 out of my pocket. The smell was disturbing. I could feel my leg burning. I pulled the Apple iPhone 6 out of my pocket and threw it to the side. Someone from a crowd of spectators threw a cup of water on my leg to put the fire out on my jeans,” he adds.
“I had a leather Apple case on the phone, and the case was facing forward, and that saved my fingers from getting badly burned when I went to remove the phone from my pocket. A bystander was not so lucky; he picked up the phone without the case and burned his fingers. With a crowd looming, another bystander then put ice water on the phone to cool it off while a third observer took the below video. Listen closely, you can hear the sizzling,” he adds.
Lechter has also put up images of his burnt leg on his blog. This is how he wraps up the story. “My Apple iPhone 6 burned through my jeans pocket, through my boxers and significantly burned my leg. In the process of removing the phone from my pocket I also burnt my hip. The doctor’s report described a 11.5cm x 10.5cm burn area on my right leg and classified the burn as second degree with first degree burns surrounding the area.
“According to the doctor, the burn will require cleanliness, antibiotics and pain management for treatment. In the days since the event… include interruptions to my business, workout, and family life and the ‘freak out’ factor for all involved.”