An unfortunate 19-year-old woman suffered burns on her stomach, right leg, and four of her fingers when her smartphone unexpectedly exploded in her jeans pocket on Saturday.
Roongrat Thiramsuk, a factory worker in Nakhon Pathom — a neighboring province of Bangkok, said she was at work when she felt her phone vibrating as if she had just gotten a text, but then she felt burning in her pocket, followed by a cloud of smoke coming from her pants.
The teen immediately tried to remove the phone from her pocket, but it was too late. The device had already burned her leg through her pants. Her coworkers came to her aid and ripped her jeans pocket off as the phone dropped to the floor and burst into flames.
“It only vibrated. After the vibration stopped, I suddenly felt the burn. I couldn’t get it out in time. The phone already melted to my leg,” Roongrat told TNN.
Roongrat said she hadn’t left an app open nor was she charging her phone. It was just there, sitting in her pocket. The label of the phone was not reported, but she said she had only been using it for one year.
She was sent to hospital for her burns.
Later, Pongsakorn Kaewchannua, the director of Suphan Buri office of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC), visited Roongrat at her home to inquire about what happened.
He said it was the NBTC’s responsibility to take care of consumers, and he has contacted the phone company, who agreed to pay Roongrat compensation and medical costs, Sanook reported.
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