14 DAY TRIAL // Well this is going to be bad for sales. A brand new iPad Air reportedly burst into flames on display at a Vodafone store in Canberra. The store was evacuated and the fire brigade was called in.
Australia’s news.com.au reports that “‘A burst of flames’ appeared from the charging port of an iPad demo model,” according to a Vodafone spokesperson. “The fire brigade was called in after the store filled with smoke and sparks continued to appear from the charging port.”
An Apple representative also came to the store to collect the device so that the cause of damage could be confirmed.
The cause could be anything from a faulty USB charging cable to the tablet’s own battery cells. Apple may or may not provide a statement regarding the incident, so I can’t tell you if we’ll ever find out what the real cause was.