One Long Island man is cursing his iPhone after it reportedly burst into flames in his pocket, causing third-degree burns.
Erik Johnson, 29, said he was in New Jersey at a cousin's wake when he suddenly felt a severe burning on the side of his leg. The cause of the pain? Johnson's iPhone 5c had exploded in his front pocket, according to a report from WCBS 880.
"All I heard was a pop, and it started fizzling, and it just started to burn my leg," he told the news outlet. "It went to a pretty much instant burn, it didn't even warm up; it just went to burn. And the only way I could get the phone away from me was to rip off my pants to get the phone out."
And this wasn't just a minor blister. Johnson said the explosion caused third-degree burns, requiring he spend 10 days in the hospital. He's still in pain and claims he cannot work, and is now planning to file a lawsuit against Apple.
"You don't expect something like this to happen, never," he said. "It's still hard to grasp the concept of this happening."
This is not the first case of an exploding smartphone. Last year, a 13-year-old Maine eighth grader was treated for burns after her iPhone 5c caught fire in her back pants pocket. Incidents of exploding iPhones date back to at least 2010, when it was reported that a user's iPhone 4 caught fire during the connection/recharging process, resulting in slight burns to the person's hand.
The problem isn't limited to iPhones, either. A Hong Kong couple was displaced in 2013 after an exploding Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone burst into flames, burning their house to a crisp.