Out of all the things that could happen during a school day, Darin Hlavaty, a student at Rowan College in Philadelphia probably didn't see this one coming. The college student freakishly caught fire during a class after he said his iPhone 6 Plus exploded in his back pocket, according to reports.
Hlavaty was reaching into his back, pants pocket for a pen during his early morning physical science class, when he noticed smoke rising from his own clothing. "Right as class was starting, my phone started smoking in my pocket. It was a fire," Hlavaty told ABC reporters. "I felt this crazy, hot burning in my leg," said Hlavaty.
And as the burning device began to spark, Hlavaty quickly yanked it from his pocket, flinging it across the room. "It was super hot so I flinched, grabbed it, threw it on the ground. Had to kick it because it was on fire," said Hlavaty.
Although everything happened pretty fast, Hlavaty's classmate, Rebecca Bookbinder, recalled the crazy noises her classmate's phone made before combusting. "Out of nowhere, we heard a fizzing and a popping sound. Suddenly a great mass of smoke comes out from his pocket," said Rebecca Bookbinder, student. "Everyone was kind of like, 'What is that? What is that?' And then we all realized that's his phone that combusted," Bookbinder said.
According to reports, campus public safety arrived to the class fifteen minutes later. Although the fire had already been extinguished, the classroom reportedly reeked of smoke, forcing the students to move to another room for the rest of the period. Luckily, the student wasn't seriously injured; he just had a huge hole in his pants for the rest of the morning.
Recently, there's been a bizarre series of smartphone explosions. Just last month, an iPhone 7 caught fire during a routine shipping. And Samsung also had to recall its Galaxy 7 smartphones after some of the batteries caught fire straight out of the packaging.
It's a little unclear what made Hlavaty's phone light up though. At the time, he said the phone battery was completely dead and it was not plugged into an outlet. "I've had it for about six months. The only thing that was wrong with it was a simple crack, but I don't see a simple crack causing it to blow up in my pocket," said Hlavaty.
Clearly, the new updates should come with a warning for mini pocket fires.
