Another Samsung phone catches fire; firm blames third-party battery

A Samsung phone recently went up in flames in a man's shirt pocket, potentially creating another PR headache for the company after the Galaxy Note 7 exploding battery fiasco.

The 30 September incident, at a hotel in Indonesia, was captured on CCTV camera and later posted on YouTube, but Samsung was quick to blame it on a third-party battery not recommended by the manufacturer.

The phone was an old device – a Samsung Galaxy Duos that was launched in 2013. The video showed the phone exploding in the owner's shirt pocket – he fell down while trying to take off his shirt but was not hurt in the incident.

Samsung released an official statement stating that the reason for the battery explosion was a third-party battery the user had put in the phone.

Phone makers always recommend that their customers only use batteries approved by the company, but users often use third-party, which are cheaper and sometimes more readily available.

The incident was reported by Channel News Asia. The South Korean phone maker said, in a statement posted on CNET, "We sincerely wish for our customer's swift recovery, and strongly recommend all our consumers to use Samsung's genuine or approved batteries that have been specifically designed for use in Samsung products."

The incident took place in Hotel Ciputra Semarang, and the man has been identified as hotel staff, named Yulianto, who told The Daily Mail, "There was a strong sensation of heat and I felt something start to shake. Before I knew what was happening there was fire and I panicked. I took off my shirt as quickly as I could."

The phone is not visible in the video, but Samsung confirmed it to be a Galaxy Duos.

For Samsung, the most serious issue with phones exploding and catching fire was around the Galaxy Note 7, which was eventually pulled out of production.

In India too, there have been reports of phones catching fire. Xiaomi's Redmi Note 4 reportedly caught fire in two separate incidents in the country. In one case, the company had claimed a faulty charger caused the fire.