A middle school student in Maine suffered second-degree burns on her thigh and back last week when her iPhone 5C spontaneously caught fire in her pocket, igniting her pants and leading to a scary classroom scene. According to the Portland Press Herald:
The 14-year-old girl had sat down just before her first-period French class Friday morning when she and her friends sitting nearby heard a pop from the Apple iPhone 5C she had been given by her mother two months earlier.
“Immediately, smoke starts billowing from around the student,” said Jeff Rodman, principal of the Middle School of the Kennebunks. “She knew right away something was wrong and, in a panic, knew her pants were on fire caused by the cellphone.”
The situation was both intense and sensitive, as the girl clearly needed to shed her pants in a classroom full of middle of school boys. Luckily, everyone involved seems to have acted calmly.
The girl had to take off the pants, so girls in the class helped her into a corner of the room while others herded the boys from the room and summoned a teacher, who was standing just outside the door, Rodman said. … Teachers came to help, and someone in the main office called 911.
The girl had the presence of mind to “stop, drop and roll,” Rodman said, which reduced the flames and the injuries she suffered. “The phone fell out of her pocket … and it was still smoldering. Her pants were still on fire,” he said.
Once the pants were off, a teacher wrapped the girl in a blanket until emergency workers could arrive. She was taken to the hospital and treated for second-degree burns. The girl, an honor student, asked to return to class after her treatment but school officials and health care workers told her to go home.
Here’s a photo of the phone, which used to be green, according to the Press Herald.
Portland Press Herald; Images via Getty, Judy Milligan/Portland Press Herald.