10 year old boy burned after cell phone exploded in pocket

[southerngale]

A 10-year-old boy in Sherman Oaks, Calif., suffered first-degree burns on his leg and groin area when a cell phone exploded in his pocket, according to a Local 6 News report.

Leobarda Villalobos recently purchased a Motorola phone for her son, Yovani. At some point, the phone exploded in Yovani's pants.

He was treated at the Grossman Burn Center.

The family is trying to determine what could have gone wrong since the cell phone has not been recalled, according to the report.

Motorola officials are not commenting.



Story and slideshow:
http://www.local6.com/news/4434305/detail.html

[DoctorHurricane2003]

Woo...got scared for a second....I have an LG phone.

But yeah....I don't know if it could just randomly explode. Something must have been done to it. It IS a bad idea to put a cell phone into a microwave to 'see what happens.'

[Lindaloo]

This is just horrible!! Could the batteries have exploded and burned him with battery acid?

[DoctorHurricane2003]

Batteries just don't randomly explode. It doesn't make any sense. This must either be a very very new model that didn't go through complete testing (unlikely) or something was done to the cell phone (likely).

Examples:

Putting a cell phone in a microwave
Sending an abnormal electric charge through the cell phone (overheating/overcharging the battery)
Heating up a cell phone via other means

etc.

[rainstorm]

fraud?

[BEER980]

I doubt fraud rainstorm. There have been quite a few cases of this and I think they were also Motorola.

[weathermom]

I remember reading recently about some cell phone batteries having been recalled because there had been instances of them exploding. I don't remember if this brand was mentioned.

[rainstorm]

I doubt fraud rainstorm. There have been quite a few cases of this and I think they were also Motorola.

doesnt mean its not fraud. there have been cases of odd things in food, but fraud happens as well

[Cookiely]

I did some checking and its not a rare ocurrence. There have been at least 83 cases in the last two years according to one article. Most of the cases were attributed to a battery not made for the phone. Some of the cases did have the original battery inside. One of them was a 911 operator who had the phone in her hand when it exploded, burned her, her clothes, and the carpet where it landed. As one person said in an article thank God it wasn't next to their ear when it exploded. I wonder if the people had left their phones in the car and the battery heated up from the intense heat in the car?

[george_r_1961]

One thing for sure that can make a battery explode is short circuiting it. Did that with a car battery when I was a teenager by being careless jumpstarting. I realize of course that cell phone batteries are much much smaller than car batteries but nevertheless the threat is there. I think its more a flaw inside the phones themselves rather than a faulty battery; this flaw causes the short and the resulting explosion.

[ohiostorm]

Did it say which models were exploding?

[Lindaloo]

One thing for sure that can make a battery explode is short circuiting it. Did that with a car battery when I was a teenager by being careless jumpstarting. I realize of course that cell phone batteries are much much smaller than car batteries but nevertheless the threat is there. I think its more a flaw inside the phones themselves rather than a faulty battery; this flaw causes the short and the resulting explosion.

I also had a car battery blow up. Put a dent in my hood.