Seven people received medical attention on Tuesday after an iPhone battery overheated in a Swiss Apple store. Police in Zurich, Switzerland evacuated around 50 customers and staff from the store after an iPhone 6S battery overheated and started spewing smoke. The small fire happened as an employee tried to repair the device. The man was treated for minor burns to his hand.
Photo: Stadtpolizei Zürich
Zurich police say no one was hospitalised as a result of the battery fire. Employees used quartz sand to stop the flames and vented the store to suck out the smoke. The results aren’t pretty:
Smartphone fires are very rare, but not completely unheard of. Samsung’s infamous Galaxy Note7 started a minor panic in 2016, with reports spreading that it sparked fires everywhere from Florida to Australia to 3000 feet in the air. iPhone fires have been less common, but just last year a woman in Wisconsin filed a lawsuit against Apple alleging a “defective” iPhone 4 battery started a house fire.
Lithium ion batteries, used by most smartphones, are notoriously flammable, even though fires are mercifully uncommon.
[CNN]