Apple is said to be investigating after a video of a user’s iPhone 7 Plus catching fire and melting went viral on social media.
The video of the iPhone 7 Plus, owned by eighteen year old Brianna Olivas from Arizona, was posted on Twitter and has been watched at least 1.2 million times.
It shows the device’s back deformed by a swollen battery and smoke emerging from a crack in the side of the phone. Follow up pictures show the burnt rear of the iPhone and its badly damaged casing.
“So my IPhone 7 plus blew up this morning .. was not even using it, literally no explanation for this,” tweeted Olivas.
It was reported that Olivas had visited an Apple store the day before the iPhone 7 Plus self-combusted, as her device would not turn on.
Apple engineers gave the phone a clean bill of health after testing the device, which appeared to be working correctly again.
The following morning however the iPhone caught fire while sitting on a dresser. Her boyfriend noticed the smoke and threw the iPhone into their bathroom, before he began to film the incident on his phone.
“We are in touch with the customer and looking into it,” an Apple spokesperson told Mashable.
The damaged iPhone has been turned over to Apple, and they are conducting tests.
Of course, problems associated with high capacity lithium ion batteries are not unusual.
Most recently Samsung’s reputation took a hit after problems with its ill-fated Samsung Galaxy Note 7.
Soon after its launch reports became to emerge that the Galaxy Note 7 could catch fire.
A recall and re-release failed to stop the problem, and the phone was eventually pulled from sale permanently.
But problems have also hit Apple. Last October an Australian man claimed that his iPhone 7 had caught fire and destroyed his car.
Another case in 2011 saw civil aviation officials in Australia launch a formal investigation after an iPhone 4 had to be doused by a flight attendant with a fire extinguisher on an internal flight.
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