EU launches safety probe of devices after series of reported fires and explosions
BRUNO WATERFIELD
Sun
Several iPods and iPhones have reportedly exploded or caught fire in Europe.
BRUSSELS — Apple iPods and iPhones which reportedly explode in the summer sun have prompted an investigation by the European Union’s safety watchdogs.
Officials have acted after a series of incidents in Britain, France, Holland and Sweden in which Apple’s digital music players and mobile phones have allegedly spontaneously combusted or detonated. In the latest incident, French teenager Romain Kolega was injured when his girlfriend’s iPhone exploded into shards after beginning to “crackle and pop like a deep-fryer.”
That report followed a British case earlier this month involving an iPod Touch music player belonging to Ellie Stanborough, 11, of Liverpool.
In July, a Dutch man, identified only as Pieter C., claimed he had left his iPhone in a car for 15 minutes only to return and find it had caught fire and severely damaged the passenger seat.
An iPod was also implicated in a Swedish fire this June when a stationary Saab was engulfed in flames, almost incinerating the owner’s dog.
“We have asked Apple to share with us any information they might have because of press reports of problems relating to iPhones and iPods,” said a European Commission official.
The commission has alerted the EU’s 27 member states requesting any details or further incidents involving iPods or iPhones.
“Apple have come back to us and said to us that these are isolated incidents. They don’t consider that there is a general problem,” said the commission official.
Said an Apple spokesman: “We are aware of these reports and we are waiting to receive the units from the customers. Until we have the full details, we don’t have anything further to add.”
Kolega, 18, claimed last week he received a minor eye injury after picking up his girlfriend’s crackling iPhone.
In the British case, Ken Stanborough threw his daughter’s iPod out of the back door of his house when it started hissing and overheating.
“Within 30 seconds there was a pop, a big puff of smoke and it went 10 feet in the air,” he said.
He has claimed Apple offered to refund the $295 Cdn. cost of the device on condition that the family sign a confidentiality agreement.
In July it emerged that Apple had tried to block a freedom of information request on iPod “burn and fire-related incidences.”
The request came from an American journalist for 800 pages of documents from the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission.
