Last Thursday, a shopper at Costco had to ditch his pants when his smartphone caught fire while in his pocket. The incident happened in Washington State. Witnesses said they saw smoke coming from within the store, and they followed it to the hardware aisle. Once there, they found a Man removing his pants in a hurry. One witness said there was a bunch of smoke. There were also a few other shoppers who were using a fire extinguisher. The witness said the people were trying to help the shopper, who has not been identified.
The shopper was not injured
The manager of the Costco said one of his employees aided the shopper, but they did not have to use the fire extinguisher. By the time the Costco employee got to the man, the phone wasn't on fire. However, it was left in pieces and the floor now has a burn mark. Thankfully, the man wasn't injured and 911 wasn't called.
Everett Tyrrell, a witness who was at the Costco when the incident happened, said he was worried about the guy. He said he guessed the shopper's pants were affected by the phone being in his pocket. Apparently, the shopper was pointing at his phone and told Tyrrell that it was an LG phone.
Cause unknown
The shopper may have ruined a pair of pants, but not all is lost.
Costco's manager ended up giving him a new pair. As for the phone, the reason why it caught fire remains unknown. Tyrrell snapped some photos of the phone. He said you could barely tell it was a phone. Tyrrell added that the whole thing was unlike anything he has ever witnessed in his life and he was amazed at how much smoke was generated from such a small item.
Another woman shared photos on Facebook. The woman said she works in the Costco where the incident occurred. The photos showed a burned phone in a box.
LG isn't the only company that has had a phone catch fire. Their rival, Samsung, issued a recall back in 2016 because certain phones had an issue with their batteries. The phones in question were the Galaxy Note 7 phones. Samsung issued a recall because some of the phones caught fire after exploding.
