Teenager 18, dies after phone explodes while charging
21 Mar 2018
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A teenager who tried to charge her phone while having a conversation on it died after the phone exploded.
Eighteen-year-old Uma Oram from Kheriakani, Odisha, was at her home when the incident happened. The sudden explosion happened after she plugged it in to charge during the conversation. Uma who suffered injuries to her hand, leg and chest, was rushed to a local hospital, where she died. Her brother Durga Prasad Oram said, "As the battery of the mobile phone was draining out, she plugged it for charging while talking over it simultaneously.
The cause of the blast is not known.
“The cell phone was put on charging when she started talking to a relative. Its battery exploded suddenly. Before we could know what exactly happened, Uma fell unconscious. She was declared dead at the hospital,” Oram said.
The phone was a Nokia 3310, though according to commentators, it bears a resemblance to a Nokia 5233.
However, Nokia denied it was one of their devices. A spokesperson for Nokia said, “While we have not been able to independently verify the facts of any of these reports, we can confirm that the mobile phone in question was not manufactured or sold by HMD Global, the new home of Nokia phones, set up in 2017 to create a new range of Nokia devices.
“As HMD Global, we are committed to producing high quality handsets which deliver a strong user experience and meet high customer expectations.”
Another incident reported last year involved one of the fastest growing smartphone brands in India, Xiaomi.
The company’s best-selling Redmi Note 4 exploded when it was not charging. A shopkeeper merely inserted the SIM card which caused the handset burst into flames.
Commentators point out that while these are one-off cases, Samsung had suffered both financially and brand-wise, when its flagship Galaxy Note 7 was recalled after it was deemed unsafe for use due to faulty batteries.
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