14 DAY TRIAL // Samsung just can’t leave behind its exploding Note 7 saga as new phones keep bursting into flames every once in a while, and putting owners’ lives at risk.
This time, a Samsung Galaxy S6 caught fire in the northwest D.C., United States, with owner Sylvia Adams explaining for NBC that the device wasn’t being used when the incident occurred.
“I was talking on the house phone and then all of a sudden I heard this sizzle and then I looked and I saw flames,” she said, explaining that she is “terrified.”
While it’s not known if the phone was charging or not, and whether the woman used a third-party charger or cable, she explains that the device “almost burned my house down,” with visible damage on the blanket, the top sheet, the mattress, and the hardwood floor.
After being contacted by NBC, Samsung offered the woman a new phone, picking up the damaged S6 to investigate and determine the cause of the explosion.
Samsung: Our phones are safe
The company played down the incident in a statement, explaining that quality and safety are two of its priorities, despite explosions involving its phones keep happening across the world.
“Samsung stands behind the quality and safety of the more than 10 million Galaxy S6 family phones in the U.S. We have reached out to Ms. Adams to retrieve the device and learn more about what happened. Until Samsung is able to obtain and examine any device, it is impossible to determine the true cause of any incident. Mobile phones are complex devices and there are many factors that could contribute to their malfunction,” the firm says.
Sylvia Adams says she’s not convinced she could continue using another Samsung device, though there are reports of models from other brands also experiencing similar issues.
Apple’s iPhones, for example, also burst into flames several times in the last 12 months, though no widespread issue, as it was the case of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, has been confirmed so far.