iPhone 4 explodes, burns man’s hand [video]

By on Feb 17, 2011 at 7:55 AM
mobile February 17, 2011

Competing smartphone platforms might be catching up to iOS when it comes to apps and UI styling — but can your Google phone do this? An iPhone 4 belonging to Omar Huartas allegedly blew up while his wife was holding it. According to Huertas’ video recount of the incident, the Apple smartphone became extremely hot while his wife held the device. The battery apparently swelled, dislodging the rear battery cover and catching fire. Huertas’ wife dropped the device on a table where it left visible burn marks. At some point during the fray, it also allegedly burned Huertas’ hand and expelled enough smoke that it set off his fire alarm. In a tweet to @ceoSteveJobs, a parody account on Twitter that Mr. Huertas may have thought to be real, Huertas writes, “my name omar huertas your iphone 4 blew up in my wife hand battery i spoke with apple i need something done loss data kids pic.” Huertas says he went to the Apple store to get a replacement phone, and it is unclear whether or not the affected handset is still in his possession. Hit the break for a bizarre video reenactment of the alleged incident.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in

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76 Comments

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  • Anonymous

    They need to ban iPhones from all airplanes.

    • Anonymous

      They need to ban iPhones from all HANDS!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Justin-Hart/700059493 Justin Hart

    sounds a LOT like that moto droid that exploded by the guys face while he was talking on it .. that turned out actually to have been dropped and he didn’t have insurance …

  • Bbrownell007

    Didn’t this phone just win the Best Phone of the year award? Is this an attempt to paint it black? I don’t own one so I’m newtral on this one. I think the company is still trying to recover from the Antennagate issue, so any more negative press could really hurt the sales of their next phone (iPhone 5 or 5G).

  • produde

    you couldve spelled the guy’s name right

  • Anonymous

    He was told to get a case for his iPhone4. Its his own fault!

  • http://twitter.com/Kevniv Kevin N

    Get the hot dogs

  • Anonymous

    Hah! Someone’s asking for this guy’s soul because he went with Apple instead of the holy one, Google and Android! It’s pretty obvious ain’t it????

  • HiImAdam

    Actually what happened is Omar was setting up an IED in his phone, to set off once he stowed away on Air Force One, sadly because of the Apple alarm clock bug, the phone went off an hour early. THANK YOU APPLE FOR SAVING THE PRESIDENT’S LIFE! Next though how bout saving someone worth a damn =)

    • rep

      To bad the battery didn’t kill your dumb ass. Oh well better luck next time.

      • QNX Please

        No kidding, too bad iPhones couldn’t cure ignorant redneck American disease.

    • Chut Pata

      You sound like a typpical Indian Pako-Phobic Islamo-Phobic outsourcing troll who saw the name Omar and assumed he is a Pakistani Moslem. If you were an American, you would have rightly though Omar might be a spanish like Roberto Omar the baseball legend, not considering names like American General Omar Bradley or Jewish filmstar Omar Sharif.

      • Chut Pata

        Would you also consider Film producer Benny Medina and filmstar Ali McGraw as Moslems? lol.

  • Adam Bullock

    “my table on fire”

  • rep

    Wow. Did not know there were so many racist trolls out in cyberspace. What does this guys racial background have to do with his phone exploding? Lithium ion and polymer batteries can be highly unstable. I have seen swollen batteries hundreds of times. Usually if the battery is older or the battery has been damaged in some way. It never comes up on Apple products because the battery is not removable. Let’s move on nothing to see here.

    • Chut Pata

      Those dumb asses think with the name Omar, he has to be a Moslem and therefore a terrorist. My bet is, this troll is an Indian who got the job when an American job was outsourced to India, and he surfs all day from Banglore spreading his Pako-phobia and captilizing your Islamo-phobia.

      Otherwise he would know Omar is also Spanish like baseball legend Roberto Omar, and Huertas is certainly a Hispanic name. Next, he will pick someone with the last name Medina and call him a Moslem from Middle East.

  • Jyotishrestha

    This is some cheap stunt.

  • 1magine

    I had a Strom 9530 I bought on release day. It did something similar. The mechanical button under the phone’s screen got so hot it burned almost all the way through. Of course the battery did not explode and the glass did not break. But you could see that it burnt underneath the screen.

    Could one in 10 million batteries not be properly sealed and explode? You betch your sweet bippy it can. Odds of winning Powerball are in the 10s of millions and more than a dozen people won it last year. Its all about the numbers/probability. No product is perfect. If they expect a failure rate of 1 in 10 million and they sell a 100 million batteries, 10 batteries are likely to fail, some with catastrophic results. It DOES JUST HAPPEN.

    • QNX Please

      No glass on a Storm, its scratch proof polycarbonate.

  • QNX Please

    Re: Steve Jobs…. Sorry Omar, you were holding it wrong. Every Smartphone will do the same if you hold it like you did. Here’s a free bumper because we care.

  • Asailors

    I do not believe this is real at all. it looks as if this person peeled back the back cover not an “explosion.” Also the uploader does not seem to know their stuff, multiple times through the video the captions say iPhone 4G?……Um..there is no such thing as the iPhone 4G….The iPhone 4 is not a 4G phone LOL…

  • Andrew

    This video was stupid. Offered little to no proof this actually happened. So to get bgr to believe something I just have to upload a photo slide show to YouTube with a stupid soundtrack?

    By the way this sounds a lot like the moto droit that “blew up” and shot glass into the users error. That story was also deemed to be fake.

  • http://twitter.com/dudedos dan

    You know the funny part? They went to apple store to get a new one……. fanboys never learn !!!

  • Anonymous

    Where it say “erase data” on my iPhone I didn’t think it will set off a timer and explode. Must be new in iOS 4.2.1.

  • teh lulz

    Wow all the apple fan boys thinking there devices are perfect, and without flaw.

    • rawrrrmonster

      their*

  • Booboolala2000

    AT&T or VZW? That’s the question. Didn’t watch the video so…

  • Velmond

    It’s obvious that the guy was holding the phone wrong…

  • Spudman

    Easily the stupidest video object ever seen. Whichever videoeditjng genius did that needs a huge raise.

  • Alfin98

    “yeahh that fire seems so real” NOT!!!!

  • shit

    that is a shit video.

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