Samsung Galaxy S3 rocked by "spontaneous combustion" claims

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Smartphone left charging overnight allegedly caught fire.

A Samsung Galaxy S3 owner has claimed his device began to smoke and catch fire after one hour of charging, spitting out molten plastic and burning his mattress topper.

I jumped out of bed only to see my phone was just beginning to catch fire

The user, who posted on the web forum reddit under the name vizionx1208, said: "I was awoken by a loud noise and a weird squeaking sound. I woke up and saw a ton of smoke coming out of my phone it also smelled really bad.

"I jumped out of bed and turned the light on, only to see that my phone was just beginning to [catch] fire."

Vizionx1208 said he managed to extinguish the phone with a glass of water, although the mattress topper it was lying on continued to smoulder.

He further claimed that a piece of flying molten plastic gave him a minor burn on his finger and when he tried to contact Samsung's product liability department he was put through to voicemail.

The case comes a year to the day after a consumer in Dublin, Ireland, claimed his S3 "exploded" while charging on the dashboard of his car. An investigation by Samsung later concluded the phone had in fact been placed in a microwave.

Similarly, a case in South Korea where a spare battery allegedly exploded in a schoolboy's back pocket was found to have been as a result of "massive external force".

In a statement to IT Pro, a Samsung spokesperson said: "Samsung is aware of this issue and will begin investigating as soon as we receive the specific product in question. Once the investigation is complete, we will be able to provide further details on the situation.

"We are committed to providing our customers with the safest products possible and are looking at this seriously," it added.

Jane McCallion
Jane McCallion
Managing Editor

Jane McCallion is ITPro's Managing Editor, specializing in data centers and enterprise IT infrastructure. Before becoming Managing Editor, she held the role of Deputy Editor and, prior to that, Features Editor, managing a pool of freelance and internal writers, while continuing to specialize in enterprise IT infrastructure, and business strategy.

Prior to joining ITPro, Jane was a freelance business journalist writing as both Jane McCallion and Jane Bordenave for titles such as European CEO, World Finance, and Business Excellence Magazine.