14 DAY TRIAL // A 15-year-old Australian teenager in the Moreton Bay region suffered superficial burns after what it could have been a major explosion leaving him blind.
Jay Watson says he was playing with an iPhone battery in his bathroom and bent it on purpose to see what’s inside, only to expose the internals and cause a small explosion that threw acid on his chest.
“They said that if the explosion happened in my eyes or acid dripped on my eyes, I most likely would've been blinded,” the boy told 9News in an interview.
The iPhone 6s battery wasn’t inside the phone, according to the report. The boy was then rushed to the hospital where he received treatment for superficial burns.
“It was an initial yellow explosion and then flames came from that,” the 15-year-old explains. “I was just curious what was inside. Would've been smarter to Google, I thought about that in the ambulance ride after.”
No manufacturing issue or overheating
Needless to say, this has nothing to do with a potential manufacturing defect or overheating, as it was the case of several other explosions that occurred in the past.
Samsung has become particularly notorious in this regard after the company had to retire a complete line of phones due to overheating batteries causing an increased risk of fire. The Galaxy Note 7 was originally recalled to receive new batteries, but due to several reports of explosions, the South Korean firm eventually decided to pull the entire lineup and prevent similar incidents from happening.
No such widespread explosions impacted Apple’s iPhone, albeit isolated reports occasionally made the rounds. However, it’s worth reminding that smartphone batteries continue to pose a risk of fire even after being removed from the device due to the materials used inside.