Cell phone ignites in pocket, severely burns man

Wednesday January 17, 2007 in: Toys For The Boys Tag(s):

Technorati Tags: toys for the boys, gadgets

Attention gadget fans: be careful what battery-powered gizmo you put in your pants pocket. You could end up like this Vallejo guy who suffered severe burns when the cell phone in his pocket burst into flames. The Mercury News gives us more details:

Luis Picaso, 59, suffered second- and third-degree burns over 50 percent of his body and is in critical condition at UC-Davis Medical Center.

``It seems like this was just an accident,'' Bill Tweedy, fire department spokesman, said. ``Maybe the power button was depressed for a long time while in his pocket or there was some sort of short circuit in the phone.''

Picaso's misfortune escalated because he was wearing flammable polyester and nylon clothes and sitting in a plastic chair when the fire began in his pocket.

``His clothes were pretty much made out of a petroleum product and when the chair ignited it became like melted gasoline and continued to fuel itself,'' Tweedy said.

Tweedy would not reveal the brand of Picaso's phone but said that he did not think the fire was connected to a specific company's products.

It was proper for the fireman not to reveal what cell phone brand put a man in the hospital, but don't you think the public has a right to know? It is understandable that most of these incidents are caused by counterfeit products, but batteries in gadgets do heat up and ignite, whether fake or genuine. The exploding Dell laptop in Japan last year is just too recent an event to forget.

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