Man claims exploding Galaxy S4 burned his house down

A man in Hong Kong insists that his Samsung Galaxy S4 emitted flames so great that his house and his Mercedes were destroyed.

The result of the fire, as reported in Hong Kong.

(Credit: XiangGuo Screenshot by Chris Matyszczyk/CNET)



Should you keep your cell phone on or near anything flammable?



This question surely will haunt the minds of many once they hear the story told by a certain Mr. Du of Hong Kong.



His claim, as relayed by the fine translators of the Register, is that his Samsung Galaxy S4 exploded and caught fire in his hands.



He allegedly had been playing Love Machine, a game that surely makes heat rise. His instinct, he says, was to toss the phone down when it caught fire, but he instead threw it onto his flammable sofa.



This split-second decision, he bemoans, cost him his house. His Mercedes was damaged too.



The story, originally reported by Xianguo, might, for some, carry a hint of Du-biousness.

Can it really be true that once his sofa caught fire, Mr. Du and his wife were unable to douse the flames before their whole apartment went up in them?



Dangerous cell phone stories do seem to come in bus-like clusters. Recently, an iPhone allegedly electrocuted a man in China -- an incident that may have been caused by a fake charger.



In the Hong Kong case, Samsung Hong Kong says it will be analyzing chemicals from the scene of the fire to see whether any of them could have come from its factory.

There is always the suspicion that rogue parts -- or even rogue repair -- might have been involved.



Last year, an iPhone began smoking on a plane in Australia and an investigation blamed a misplaced screw in the battery cavity. An unauthorized service provider had repaired the phone.



Though Mr. Du and his wife suffered no serious injuries after their blaze, Mr. Du insists that his phone and charger were both legitimate Samsung products.