An 11-year old girl from Bakersfield, California, claims that her iPhone 6 caught fire while she was holding it in her hand and using it in her sister’s bedroom.
As reported by 23ABC on Thursday, Kayla Ramos recalled a recent incident where she was sitting down in her sister’s room and holding her iPhone 6 when sparks suddenly started flying out of the device. While she told the Bakersfield ABC affiliate that she burned herself because she reacted “a little bit late,” she explained that she still managed to throw the phone on a blanket. The device then burned holes through the blanket, though there were no other reports of injuries or damage in relation to the incident.
“I was right here on the bed and the phone managed to burn through this blanket and make these holes,” Ramos added.
According to Ramos, she mainly watched YouTube videos on her iPhone 6 and occasionally allowed her younger siblings to use the device to play games.
Ramos’ mother, Maria Adata, reportedly called Apple’s support hotline after the incident and was advised to send photos of the damaged iPhone and ship the device to the retailer for inspection. She added that Apple is currently looking into the matter to find out the possible cause of the explosion and will send her a replacement phone once the company receives the damaged handset.
“This could have been my child,” Adata told 23ABC . “My child could have been caught on fire and she could have been hurt more and I am glad she’s ok.”
California girl says her iPhone 6 caught fire https://t.co/NbUosMrHPC pic.twitter.com/jwLlviHuMy
— ABC13 Houston (@abc13houston) July 14, 2019
While Apple representatives told 23ABC that the company’s media representatives were unaware of the incident, the tech giant noted that there are multiple reasons why an iPhone could explode. These include the use of unauthorized charging cables and other accessories, as well as external damage and repairs done outside of an official Apple service provider.
For her part, Adata speculated that her daughter’s iPhone 6 might have caught fire because the device overheated due to frequent charging. Ramos also pointed out that none of the possible causes for an iPhone explosion mentioned above were applicable to her case.
As noted in a separate report from 9to5Mac , many users have claimed through the years that their iPhones exploded for one reason or another. While the nearly 5-year-old iPhone 6 is one of Apple’s older handsets, one recent case documented by iDropNews involved the fairly new iPhone XS Max, as a Columbus, Ohio, man claimed in December that the phone caught fire in his pants pocket while he as at work, leading to some minor injuries and a “burned/melted” device, which Apple reportedly offered to replace.