Aug 2 2009iPhone Allegedly Catches Fire, Ruins Upholstry

Allegedly some Dutch guy's iPhone spontaneously combusted in his passenger seat when he stepped away from his vehicle to fix a windmill and make a pair of wooden shoes. Per the translation:
Pieter from Leiden had this afternoon, unfortunately the Dutch premiere of his iPhone 3G spontaneously started burning. His iPhone 3G was on the passenger's seat in standby mode and not the charger. By returning to his car came thick black smoke through the door to the outside and the cause was his iPhone 3G in spontaneously fire was flown. Besides a total devastated iPhone 3G Pieter has also considerable damage to his car.
Pieter has direct contact with Apple Netherlands and T-mobile but n och Apple or T-mobile still take some responsibility.
Hey, weirder things have happened. I can't think of any right now but I'm sure they have. Well, there was this one time I parked my car, opened the door, and there was a $10 SITTING RIGHT THERE. Explain that one without aliens. Exactly, you can't.
Hit the jump for two more shots of the damage.


Dutch iPhone 3G flies spontaneously fire (translated)
via
Flaming iPhone 3G Melts a Crater In This Car Seat [gizmodo]
Related Stories
Cell Phone Lighter: For All Your Cancer Needs (07/17/2009)
Fire Hazard: The Wrist Mounted Flamethrower (08/31/2009)
The iGiveUp: A Handgun Bluetooth Handset (07/15/2008)
WTF Was That?: The Lateset Android Ad (11/05/2009)
Sure, Why Not?: Driving Around In A Half-Car (11/01/2009)

Reader Comments
1. Taylor - August 2, 2009 7:52 PM
wow! thats crazy
2. drew - August 2, 2009 7:59 PM
I wish my iPod Touch could do that., because then I would give it to someone...
3. Peregrinus - August 2, 2009 8:00 PM
Oh, BURN!!! That's the hottest phone on the market, etc... etc....
4. Eskimobob - August 2, 2009 8:09 PM
4th yaya
5. SmokingGirl - August 2, 2009 8:12 PM
Weren't there stories about a year or so ago about phones supposedly bursting into flames?
What I don't understand is if the phone flamed-on like that in the car, why didn't the rest of the car catch fire as well?
True spontaneous combustion anyone? Quick, call TAPS! Ghost Hunters aaaaaawwwwwaaaaayyyyyyyy!
6. Daisy - August 2, 2009 8:18 PM
FAKE!!!!
Thats a complete photoshop job. You can tell its a fake because the shadow's are all wrong.
This is exactly like that scene in the movie Never Back Down where Max and Baja were racing with people shooting at them. Max put the napalm in the ejector seat, and made it get all over the guy behind them. Then Baja used the cigarette lighter to light the guy up.
7. naas - August 2, 2009 8:26 PM
That's some pretty bad gas right there, I have some old jeans that look a lot like that
8. dexterdouglass - August 2, 2009 9:13 PM
Ha Ha Ha
Get Wet with Eliza Dushku
http://wet.bethsoft.com?fbid=7gWEIONu3au
9. dexterdouglass - August 2, 2009 9:13 PM
Ha Ha Ha Dutch
Get Wet with Eliza Dushku
http://wet.bethsoft.com?fbid=7gWEIONu3au
10. Chris - August 2, 2009 9:15 PM
you can't legally get an iphone under anything but at&t right? if this was really under t-mobile then its the guys fault for breaking service
11. fetus_mcnuggets - August 2, 2009 9:48 PM
looks like zaboomafoo needs the pepto
I WISH I COULD poo piping steamy cellphone turds
god zaboo !!
12. Ciao - August 2, 2009 10:07 PM
that's one way to get your car that smoky i-scent
13. Anon - August 2, 2009 10:28 PM
@11, Chris, most of the world outside of the U.S. deals with T-Mobile and not at&t. I don't even even think at&t is an international company that deals outside of the U.S. (Read: Your logic fails).
14. Anon - August 2, 2009 10:30 PM
@10 not 11
15. EinoJ - August 2, 2009 10:32 PM
HOLY SHIT?! Is that an Opel Astra?!
16. Annie - August 2, 2009 10:45 PM
Ha ha - flameo, hotman.
17. Dishy Dishyington - August 2, 2009 11:38 PM
GW, that $10, it was mine. I lost it accidentally one day. Plz email it back to me plz. You can keep a 25-cents as a finder fee. But the rest is mine cause I lost it. ty.
18. Dishy Dishyington - August 2, 2009 11:44 PM
It is sad that the apple products tend lagging behind the fire, but otherwise they have many fine qualities. Like my hair, except in the electronics industry. Robots sometimes moving through cars and catches and neighborhoods also a great many fires, and so on. But nobody says that is one thing that must be called or in property.
19. Pistol Pete - August 3, 2009 12:16 AM
We taking bets Apple calls it the fault of the Belkin case causing it to overheat?
Apple is like a giant twig and berries that has crabs called geniuses. Together they conspire to attach themselves to your wallet's pubes. Burn them all with fire.
I heart my iPhone though. Now I'm all itchy
20. Iris - August 3, 2009 12:23 AM
ha! sucks for him!
wonder if he had iphone insurance..
21. Boost - August 3, 2009 12:47 AM
Fix a windmill and make a pair of wooden shoes....ahahahahahahaha
22. Ben - August 3, 2009 12:55 AM
Apple should make that into an app ...
23. lee harless - August 3, 2009 1:35 AM
i do not believe this at all. not at all. no way.
24. lee harless - August 3, 2009 1:38 AM
if anything, it was that belkin case
25. GeekoFan - August 3, 2009 2:41 AM
Must See!!
http://75684.onodot.com/
26. nicky - August 3, 2009 3:40 AM
Air Force 25
Air Jordan 5
27. nicky - August 3, 2009 3:43 AM
http://www.4uaf.com/ Nike Men Air Force 1 High
http://www.aj2u.com/ Air Jordan 9
28. handyman - August 3, 2009 4:19 AM
thats a spicy phoneball!
29. Jaded Icon - August 3, 2009 8:30 AM
Apple did that car a favor. The dutch guy should consider himself lucky that he even got to hold an iphone. What most likely happened was the holiness of the iphone burn through the Dutch guy's car seat because that's where he sins daily by sticking his fingers in dikes.
30. shadwag - August 3, 2009 8:43 AM
clearly the work of jordan van der sloot.
31. Timbo - August 3, 2009 8:44 AM
That's not an iphone... that's goliaths cigarette lighter...
32. Dorette - August 3, 2009 8:59 AM
That's a disgraceful translation. :( Here's a better one. The original message was pretty badly written, so the translation isn't that good either. Fail. >_<
Dutch iPhone 3G spontaneously combusts
While we've already seen images of the IPhone 3G spontaneously melting or burning while its charging, we have not yet seen it spontaneously combust. Today Pieter held the dubious honor of being the first to own a spontaneously combusting iPhone 3G.
The phone was lying on his passenger seat in stand-by mode. It was charging, as had been the case in previous incidents.
When Pieter returned to his car, thick, black smoke was wafting out the window. The cause? His iPhone 3G. Besides a completely ruined IPhone 3G, Pieter's car had sustained considerable damage as well.
Pieter has contacted Apple Netherlands and T-Mobile, but neither Apple nor T-Mobile have taken resonsibility for the incident. As far as we can tell, Apple has reimbursed similar incidents in other countries. Hopefully Pieter will receive the same.
33. Dorette - August 3, 2009 9:00 AM
@ myself: It was NOT charging, as had been the case in previous incidents.
Even more faaaaaaaaaail. :)
34. Dorette - August 3, 2009 9:18 AM
And to prove I really have nothing else to do while I'm at work, here's a reaction from the victim's girlfriend in response to all the people saying he faked it.
:P
Dear readers,
This story concerns MY car too. So, no, it's not a fake story, and I'm not 'attention-seeking'. Yeah, the car's hideous and old, but it IS officially approved. Pieter used it every day to drive to work.
Still, I don't think it matters what kind of car it is, or that it was old. That shouldn't matter, it just shouldn't catch fire.
Besides that, Pieter wasn't just 'gone'. He was just down the road, helping a friend to load his vacation stuff into a different car. That's why his phone was in the passenger seat, with headset (ya know, so you can CALL while driving). It was lying there for 15 minutes, tops. (Not sure why I'm saying this, since everyone's so mean...)
I really hope this gets solved, and still I'm hapyp that this happened in the car, and not on the couch in our home!
Best,
Pieter's girlfriend
PS. Yeah, I welcome representatives from the companies to come and look at the damage, and judge for themselves! But THEY asked US to get in touch with a damage-expert ! Kind of weird! Still no solution, and no real help. That's why we brought out the story... I'm a big Apple fan myself, so it's not about dissing them... I just don't want this to happen again !
35. STOMPY - August 3, 2009 9:32 AM
So what did everyone get up to this weekend?
Here is what naas GFS and I got up to....
http://bugi.oulu.fi/~heikkiv/chan/wtf.jpg
36. Foxx - August 3, 2009 9:46 AM
Would be so great if he was listentening to "Boom Boom Pow" when it happened
37. naas - August 3, 2009 10:12 AM
@35 Ha did you ever untie her from under the sink or did you follow shum & I out when we heard the police coming!?
38. Pat - August 3, 2009 10:27 AM
Now he should re-sell the phone on eBay and make back the money to replace his seat. You know _some_ idiot will buy it.
39. Gordon "Fücking" Shumway - August 3, 2009 10:56 AM
MILK!
40. Hawk - August 3, 2009 11:12 AM
That's what you get for owning that garbage!!
41. McCracken - August 3, 2009 3:21 PM
Well, that's a bummer. Your also not suppose to leave it in the car fools. Hot places and things like that don't go well together.
42. Joe H - August 3, 2009 3:46 PM
Maybe it's rebelling because AT&T/Apple won't let the google voice app run on it.
43. Bumperpants - August 3, 2009 4:44 PM
You would think that there would be more burn marks around that seat if it were really damaged by fire. And if it was, I would say the much more likely scenario is that the guy dropped his cigarette on the passenger seat with the phone on it before he left. Probably just a dumb person who couldn’t figure out what really happened or is making up a story to cover for his stupidity- you know, one of those people who uses aliens or magic to explain things we don’t understand.
44. Vaganza - August 5, 2009 1:31 PM
Hmm catching fire in a car again, who made the charger?
45. Caspar - August 5, 2009 11:52 PM
That's not a fake picture, it's just that it isn't an Iphone, but a cheap-ass replica of somekind... I don't see a look-a-like apple-logo anywhere do you? It more looks like mirrored Russian or something. Look it up.
Gr, Caspar
46. wesley - August 8, 2009 4:55 AM
Its not a i phone but a belkin!!!!!!!!!!!
47. Prime - August 10, 2009 6:54 AM
its not a ipod its a belkin gps
48. Prime - August 10, 2009 6:55 AM
it seems that only wesley and i have good eyes
49. Muurling - August 11, 2009 8:32 AM
It's not a Belkin phone it's a Belkin case when you use everything at the same time like gps gprs and application like maps and you use it as iPod the iPhone uses a lot of his capabilities and get "hot" when you have a case like this on the it wil get hotter and hotter because it can't cool down. Then you can get this kind of things.
So Burn iPhone Burn!