Report: Galaxy S 4 Explosion Burns Hong Kong Home

A Hong Kong couple have been displaced after an exploding Samsung Galaxy S 4 smartphone burst into flames, burning their house to a crisp.

The man, identified in the original Xianguo.com report only as Mr. Du, claims that his phone, battery, and charger were all legitimate Samsung products, but that's now difficult to confirm since his home and everything in it were destroyed.

According to the translated report, Du sat on the living room sofa playing the game "Love Machine" on his charging GS4 when it suddenly exploded. In the heat of the moment, he threw the device onto the couch, which caught fire. The flames then spread to the curtains and the rest of the house, "out of control," Xianguo said.

Du, his wife, and his dogs managed to escape the house unscathed; neighbors were temporarily evacuated as firefighters fought the flames. Almost all of the couple's furniture and appliances burned to ash, the news site said, adding that their Mercedes parked outside was also damaged.

Whether or not the true cause of an entire house fire was a singular 5-inch smartphone remains to be seen, though a fire department investigation initially resulted in a report of "no suspicious circumstances."

Samsung did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment, but told Xianguo that it will "carry out detailed investigations and tests to determine the cause of the incident."

Last year, a Galaxy S III owner in Dublin was driving in his car when the device caught fire.

Cell phone safety is increasingly becoming an issue in Asia, where two cases of iPhone shock occurred within a week of each other this month.

On July 11, a 23-year-old flight attendant with China Southern Airlines was allegedly electrocuted when she took a call on her Apple device while it was charging. She was reportedly using the original charger when she was killed.

A week later, a Beijing website reported that a man using a counterfeit or third-party charger to juice his iPhone 4 was intensely shocked and rushed to the hospital. While doctors managed to revive 30-year-old Wu Jiantong, he later slipped into a coma, and remains in the Intensive Care Unit.

In response, Apple last week posted a guide to the Chinese version of its website, urging users to use only official chargers for their iOS gadgets. The company promised that all of its products are "subject to stringent safety and reliability testing, and designed to meet government safety standards around the world."

Source: http://feeds.ziffdavis.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/breakingnews/~3/RMLF2RCc3cM/0,2817,2422490,00.asp

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