Apple iPhone 5c just blew up

[Plazorn]

Hello, I was just chilling out in my room when I hear a hissing noise, I realize it’s my IPhone 5c.
It had a white screen, but each second it was getting brighter, and brighter, and brighter, and then
It popped and started smoking. Afterward, once it got safe enough to touch, I assessed the damage.
A broken rainbow lcd, a few cracks, and a black mark on the screen where the fire was.
I was just wondering, have any of you had a similar issue?

 

[weatMod]

Hello, I was just chilling out in my room when I hear a hissing noise, I realize it’s my IPhone 5c.
It had a white screen, but each second it was getting brighter, and brighter, and brighter, and then
It popped and started smoking. Afterward, once it got safe enough to touch, I assessed the damage.
A broken rainbow lcd, a few cracks, and a black mark on the screen where the fire was.
I was just wondering, have any of you had a similar issue?

is this a phone you still were using?
I would think not
I have 2 sitting in drawer next to my bed so this is a little concerning especially if you like me have these things just sitting for a long time and are not actively using them, charging and discharging them

 

[Hayato213]

Where I previous work, a former coworker had an ipad exploded right in front of him, luckily he was fine.

 

[yuyuyup]

my old ipod touch battery inflated recently after years of indoor use with a case/ barely any abuse

 

[linuxares]

Did it just swell or did it pop?

Sadly it's common with Lithium batteries to swell up if they're damaged. Rather the swell than full blown fire.
It's just to recycle it now. No use trying to repair it. Since the motherboard is most likely fucked.

Do not try to pop the battery or exchange it. Better to accept the loss imho.

 

[Plazorn]

This iPhone 5c was a family member’s, but they are going to come looking for it next weekend….

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

If I could I’d post a picture, but it will only put in a url

 

[slimhakz]

Haha you can't say if you'd post a picture, you now must post a picture!!

Damn b4t3r13z

 

[FAST6191]

Was it being charged at the time?
I ask as sometimes failure in charging devices (usually very cheap and nasty ones, fake apple stuff being a noted avenue here) can see a high voltage and serious current flow out of them. This may a) break the next thing you plug into it and b) possibly make the case of whatever you are touching go live at mains voltage which is rarely a good look (especially not in the US where things are a bit less safe in many houses) and even less of one if you put headphones in just before.

Likely it was just some kind of short in the battery or motherboard, maybe with a battery that came to the end of its life, that caused a bit of a meltdown. Thankfully it was not in your pocket or on your pillow while you slept.
Hope you had any data backed up as well for while you might be able do something here it is harder, also why I like things with SD cards.

 

[Plazorn]

Thanks for the possibilities, I think it was charging,

 

[Deleted member 194275]

I remember that a co-worker was sleeping in a inter-state bus, with a phone resting is his lap while charging. He woke up with his leg burning, it left quite a mark at that time.

I think this is a risk with batteries, they may fail and may fail in a spectacular way.

Edit: I do not remember the make and model of his phone

 

[Deleted member 546149]

This is what happens when you use an extremely outdated phone

 

[linuxares]

This iPhone 5c was a family member’s, but they are going to come looking for it next weekend….

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

If I could I’d post a picture, but it will only put in a url

You can share with Imgur

 

[Deleted member 546149]

You can share with Imgur

Please do, I wanna see an exploded iPhone

 

[SaberLilly]

Well i'm glad you are ok and there wasn't a battery fire, shame about the phone, though i too would like to see a picture.

 

[gnmmarechal]

That's quite the catastrophic failure there

 

[SDA]

Urgh, it really was horrible. I hope you'll get a new phone soon.
Kinda remembers me the Galaxy Note 7 Launch when literally every phone produced by Samsung exploded, which once even set a Jeep on fire.

 

[nemwolf]

That's unfortunate about the phone, I sure hope everyone is safe and that the pictures were backed up from the phone. I have never had a phone catch on fire but I have had a few expanding batteries on my devices. The only times I can think of seeing a phone battery up in flames was that if it was punctured.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Hello, I was just chilling out in my room when I hear a hissing noise, I realize it’s my IPhone 5c.
It had a white screen, but each second it was getting brighter, and brighter, and brighter, and then
It popped and started smoking. Afterward, once it got safe enough to touch, I assessed the damage.
A broken rainbow lcd, a few cracks, and a black mark on the screen where the fire was.
I was just wondering, have any of you had a similar issue?

Seeing as that is a pretty old model I'm guessing it had its battery replaced at some point by a 3rd party shop and they put in some cheapo Chinese crap. Most of the time cheapo Chinese batteries don't explode/catch fire, they just don't have the same level of QC and the factories don't really care if something explodes, because they don't put their name on it anyway...
I think Apple is doing official battery replacements for a quite reasonable price. Not sure if it applies to all models or just certain ones. As long as that is an option it's better than going with some 3rd party who you don't know where they get their parts from, even if it costs a little bit more.
I just can't trust any noname battery because stuff like this happens. It can happen with legitimate 1st party batteries too (remember the Note 7?) but when it does it results in an immediate recall and it's pretty clear that people should not keep using them so if they do, that's on them. Even some branded Chinese batteries turn out to be fire hazards. It's just hard to know which ones are actually any good.

 

[Plazorn]

here it is, black marks on top are from the fire

 

[slimhakz]

here it is, black marks on top are from the fire

If the screen is on, replacement battery and lcd - looks fairly salvageable!