Flaming Cellphones

phorm writes "Many of us have heard the urban legend of cellphones causing fires at the gas pump, but how about the hazards of replacement batteries? Reuters is carrying a story about a woman whose cellphone burst into flame, causing her superficial burn injuries. According to Nokia, the problem has occured before, and is related to non-brand replacement batteries. For various reasons, these batteries may overheat and catch fire, or even explode! So far I haven't found much info on whether this has happened with other brands of phone, though I do know that my little flip-phone gets very hot when running in analog mode. Perhaps some slashdot readers have had a similar experience?"

Quick!

[briancollins]

Call the fire brigade!

Ask Slashdot:

[mfago]

So my cellphone just burst into flames. Does anyone on Slashdot have an idea what I should do?

This is Satan...

[blate]

She must have dialed a 666 number... Or perhaps it was Bill Gates calling. >:-)

Flaming cellphones?

[Surak]

So...what...are they pink? Do they have pictures of Tinky Winky on them? Or what? :)

Huzzah!

[VanWEric]

This is only proof that there is a god, and he does not approve of cell-phoning and driving.

So...

[Black Parrot]

Are we supposed to welcome the cell phones as our new overlords, or the off-brand batteries?

Re:Ask Slashdot:

[blate]

Dial 911 to report the fire.

retribution!

[m.lemur]

was she talking on the cellphone on a bus/train/mass transit system?

if so all I can say is:

"hah hah"

Coverup!

[Un pobre guey]

She is a secret CIA operative receiving a "this phone will self-destruct in 15 seconds" message!

If you work for the CIA, do not take company messages while drinking coffee and browsing CDs at the record store.

Serves them right...

[Burpmaster]

I'd like to see THAT happen in class!

Grr

[NanoGator]

Nobody calls me you insensitive clod.

Stupid IP...

[focitrixilous P]

It's the MPAA out for revenge for the bad text messages [slashdot.org] reported recently. Watch out, lest your speakers burst into flame for playing illegal .mp3s. I think giving them the ability to light phones ablaze was too big a concesion for them, as punishment just for badmouthing their IP, but IP is IP, right?

It's not a bug, it's a feature

[artemis67]

Apparently, whoever she was talking to hit the "ignite cellphone" button...

Inspired by the Simpson's

[Anonymous Coward]

I like my beer cold, my TV loud, and my cellphones flaming .

False alarm!

[NanoGator]

Relax folks. It was just Chief Quimby delivering an assignment to the Inspector.

Quick!-Gas tank.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm wondering. Do you have to hit these phones from behind?

Re:Flaming cellphones?

[blackcoot]

totally off topic, but nonethelessL obligatory simpsons quote: "You know me Marge, I like my beer cold, my TV hard, and my homosexuals, flammmmming..." -- Homer Simpson

This brings a whole new meaning

[KiwiEngineer]

This brings a whole new level to the concept of starting a flame war or having a heated discussion on the phone.

It also opens up the potential for cellphones to be sold as firestarters for campers outside of the transmission range, a wholly untapped market.

My story with NiCads and NiMH on my cellphone

[wackybrit]

Perhaps some slashdot readers have had a similar experience?

Count me in.

Back in the late Eighties, I bought one of those 'brick' phones. Of course, as was the style at the time they weren't called that, because they just happened to be that size, nothing special.

As was the style at the time, the phones used ridiculous NiCad batteries for portability -- when you were in the car, they ran off of a device hooked up to the car battery, so you didn't need to wear the batteries out. Unfortunately the NiCad batteries were crap. As you probably already know, NiCad batteries have this really horrible 'memory' effect where if you recharge the battery before it's completely empty, it thinks that where you've just started to recharge it from is the *real* empty.. and it's not.

I could also only get thirty minutes' talk time out of a full charge, although it'd stay on standby on one charge for about three hours. Considering it took 12 hours to charge the NiCad (overnight charger), this wasn't a great arrangement if you wanted to use the phone while out and about during the daytime.

At the time, NiMH's weren't available for cell phones, in fact hardly anyone used them at all for anything really. But they delivered better battery life (for the time), didn't have the horrible memory effect, and charged more quickly than the NiCads charged.

So what I did was buy a second battery from Motorola for the princely sum of $95 (!!! and this was in the Eighties!!), I gutted it, and replaced all of the NiCad cells (yes, those big batteries are just collections of batteries all hooked together - it's not just one giant pool of acid in there..) with approximately 25 regular AA sized NiMH batteries that I bought at some store in a town. And, yes, I made sure the voltages all added up and that the current supply somewhat matched up. So I threw the casing back on the battery, hooked it up, and the phone worked! Talk-time was up to about ninety minutes, standby time was up to SIX hours (!! - I know, this sounds pretty ridiculous by today's standards, but there you go). I was walking on air.

A week later, I was walking along, cellphone in its case (they were big, so you carried them in things kinda like camera cases - you know, those big Nikon camera bags, that you can get a few lenses in).. phone was on standby,and suddenly BANG, the side casing of the battery ploughed a hole through the bag and fell onto the floor and suddenly all this goop (the battery acid) was running out. I dropped it immediately and battery acid was pouring out everyplace.

That was some dangerous stuff.

So hang up when your phone is a hot potatoe!

[WoTG]

Interesting. So, the smart thing to do is hang up your phone when it gets a lot hotter than usual!

"Sorry, honey, I gotta go. My phone is about to spontaneously combust."

Flaming phones don't interest me

[karmavore]

I like burning the phone bills.

I would pay to see that...

[Kirsha]

...at the movie theather. Asshole who doesnt turn off his cellphone, gets a call, answers it and BOOM, the fireworks illuminate the room. Yes, entertainment at its finest!

and in related news ...

[cr@ckwhore]

Excerpt from a related story ...

"John Smith, 45, received minor burns to his hands Thursday evening when his computer suddenly burst into flames. Operating system vendor Microsoft provided a statement, indicating that the cause of the small fire was due to the use of Star Office, a 'non-microsoft brand' product."

why doesnt this happen...

[resignator]

to the cellphone of that guy that goes around asking,"can you hear me now?" If only life were so sweet.

Exploding Cell Phones...

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like a good office prank. :)

Re:Ask Slashdot:

[SparkyTWP]

Bitch that it's somehow SCO's fault

Well

[Anonymous Coward]

For this very reason, I modded my phone. Phew...

Ok, here is my rig (Phone):

I got a small vantec Geforce2 chip fan, and drilled (dremel) a hole on the back of my phone (Sanyo 4900) behind the PCB. The fan was at first glued by superglue, but since this didn't work when temperate went high, I then used a length of duck tape to permantaly bind the fan to the phone.

But this caused some problems, namly they tape went around the phone, thus the keys were all stuck behind the phone. Thus, I spent an afternoon using a surgical (dont try this at home kids) scalpel to cut out the phone keys from the tape. It worked.

Now the temp problem was solved, but this fan is loud as hell, I think my next cooling mod would include heat pipes.

The other mods I've done on my phone (apart from turning the faint red led to bright blue red that shouldnt be shined into eyes ... )...

Well, my phone is now pimped up in a coat of UV paint, thus if I take it to a club, it's the most attractive thing to chicks who just cant take their hands off my

Re:nokia falls for urban legends

[nordicfrost]

But on the other side, what kind of consumer goods aiming for the American market todday has any sensible warning labels?

Glock gun: Point away from face. (Aaahhh. So THAT'S what I've been doing wrong)

Re:This is Satan...

[m_chan]

Nah.. she downloaded a clip from a Madonna song to use as the ringer, and the RIAA is getting REALLY aggressive about protecting their artist's IP.

Above post by Grandpa Simpson

[Anonymous Coward]

We can't bust heads like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to tell them stories that don't go anywhere. Like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe. So, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days nickels had pictures of bumblebees on them. 'Give me five bees for a quarter', you'd say. Now, where were we? Oh, yeah...the important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions because of the war; the only thing you could get was those big yellow ones.

Answer to your question

[ehiris]

"...cellphone burst into flame...Perhaps some slashdot readers have had a similar experience?"

Please refer this kind of questions to Darwin Awards [darwinawards.com]

heh

[nyet]

Stop, drop, and rollover minutes

Hell, I'm on the fire brigade -- (volunteer).....

[Anonymous Coward]

I can honestly say that though I've never seen one, I'd be more than willing to spray a thousand gallons of water at say, 300psi through a 1 1/4 nozzel at anyone with a flaming cell phone still being held to their face.

* Although I did once load a woman with a broken jaw into an ambulance after she wrecked a brand new truck while talking on the phone. Guess what, when we got there, she was STILL TALKING. You must have something important to say to talk on a cell in a busted truck with a busted jaw.

Thanks a lot!

[El]

Start pointing out that cell phones can easily be made into incendiary devices by shorting out the batteries, and they'll start confiscating them at airport security gates and throwing into the same basket as the fingernail clippers and knitting needles.

"Stop that man!!! He's got a CELL PHONE hidden in his shoe!!!"

Re:This is Satan...

[El]

Anybody that uses a Madonna ringtone certainly DESERVES to have their phone burst into flames! Of course, my phone plays Tocatta En Fugue in D Major every time somebody calls, so I probably shouldn't talk...

Re:My story with NiCads and NiMH on my cellphone

[fuzzix]

"NiCad batteries have this really horrible 'memory' effect where if you recharge the battery before it's completely empty, it thinks that where you've just started to recharge it from is the *real* empty"

Whoah... It thinks? This is a major developemnt - I must return to my battery lab!

That's ridiculous...

[rune2]

In fact I'm using my phone to view Slashdot at this very moment and it's...... #### NO CARRIER ####

Re:Other brands of phone - Siemens

[Guppy06]

"A spokeswoman for Siemens said a GSM (cellphone) of the Siemens brand exploded last year in Germany."

Exploding Siemens?

Sometimes they make it all too easy...

It's not just the batteries

[VikingBerserker]

I was once involved in a similar incident, though the cause wasn't battery related. I was on an away mission, collecting soil samples for later study, when the captain ordered an immediate wide-range phaser volley directly on my communicator's position.

I never did learn why the order came through, and I spent the next two weeks in sick bay, listening to the doctor tell me how he's "not this" and "not that." At least I got a raise in rank, and a nice blue uniform to replace the scorched red one.

new slogan

[Anonymous Coward]

Can you hear me... OW!!

Re:Hell, I'm on the fire brigade -- (volunteer)...

[Alien Being]

A guy goes to the doctor with both sides of his face badly burned. The doc asked him what happened. He says he was ironing his clothes when the phone rang and he picked up the hot iron and held it to his head.

So the doc asks what happened to the other side of his face.

"I had to call an ambulance."

I can see it now...

[krymsin01]

April 1, 2012 Today, billions of sell phones spontaneosly combusted after the payload of a "worm" was devlivered.

Oh Lord . . .

[jhylkema]

Bless this thy Holy Hand Phone of Antioch, that with it thou may burnest thy faces of thine enemies into little tiny bits, in thy mercy.

Re:Ask Slashdot:

[Lost Penguin]

SCO has now claimed rights to the Big Bang.
All your particles are belong to SCO

Re:Hell, I'm on the fire brigade -- (volunteer)...

[ralfg33k]

C'mon.....finish the job:

Doc: So, why is the first side burned twice as badly as the second side?

BBQ guy: Right after I hung up from talking to 911, the first caller called back.

[ba-da-BOOM!] Thank you very much...I'm here 'till Sunday.

Re:Other brands of phone - Siemens

[Anonymous Coward]

They mix all too well -- I'd bet that after the phone has done its thing, the woman was covered in Siemens.