College student Darin Hlavaty said his iPhone 6 Plus burst into flames in his back pocket and burned a hole in his jeans, 6ABC reports. Hlavaty said, “I felt this crazy, hot burning in my leg” while sitting on his phone in class, reaching down to find his phone on fire and smoking in his pocket. “Out of nowhere, we heard a fizzing and a popping sound. Suddenly a great mass of smoke comes out from his pocket,” said Rebecca Bookbinder, a fellow student.
Hlavaty threw the phone to the ground and kicked it away. A Rowan College spokesperson confirmed that a teacher called public safety to report the fire, but said it was already out by the time they arrived. Hlavaty said the phone’s battery was dead and he didn’t have it plugged in. “I’ve had it for about six months. The only thing that was wrong with it was a simple crack, but I don’t see a simple crack causing it to blow up in my pocket,” Hlavaty said. Fires like these are rare but far from unheard of. In August, a cyclist’s iPhone caught fire after he fell on it and earlier this year, a woman’s iPhone 6 caught fire during an airline flight.
