Apple iPhone 6 Plus bursts into flames while owner is asleep

Igniting smartphones are so 2016. Well, apparently not, as an Apple iPhone 6 Plus has reportedly burst into flames while its owner was asleep in the wee hours of the morning. The victim, a female resident of Palm Harbor, Florida, said that the fire coming out of the Apple device woke her and her husband up early Tuesday.

“My face was so close to the phone that when it immediately went up in flames, it woke me up,” said Amanda Bentz. “I’m luckily a light sleeper.”

The iPhone 6 Plus was connected to a charger and on top of her night stand when it suddenly burst into flames, causing her to wake up. According to the victim, the iPhone initially gave off a sound like that of a shooting firecracker before it “literally blew flames right out the side of the phone.” The handset is now nothing more than a molten pile of plastic and broken glass while her night stand was left covered with black soot.

Amanda said that the fire singed not only her comforter and curtains, but the pillow case right next to her head as well. Luckily, her husband Kyle took control before things further escalated. He quickly grabbed a shirt and used it to smother the flames.

“If he wouldn’t have woken up right then and there, and like immediately came to and put it out, it would have caught the curtain on fire, and then the bed,” said Amanda.

Apple already knows about the victim’s situation and a spokesperson has confirmed to WFLA that the Cupertino-based tech giant is looking into the matter. Amanda and Kyle are understandably shaken up by what happened. The couple are now having second thoughts about having another iPhone 6 Plus in their bedroom with Apple offering them a replacement model.

“It’s scary,” said the victim. “It’s scary when it’s three o’clock in the morning and you’re not expecting that.”

Apple intends to put a US$749 (AU$979) hold on Amanda’s credit card. The company has requested the victim to send the burned up iPhone to its headquarters. Apple intends to return her money once the device arrives.

The victim’s iPhone 6 Plus was two and a half years old. While it’s considerably not that worn in terms of mileage, battery failures among handsets that have been used for that amount of time aren’t surprising. This also isn’t the first time an iPhone 6 Plus has burst into flames, although such cases are few and far between.

Eight Apple iPhones reportedly explode; tech giant cites ‘external physical damage’

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