SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Fire / ignition

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20210405-9BC90-3164096. Severity: Injury, No First Aid or Medical Attention Received. Product: Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (Samsung Cell Phone Model Galaxy S7 Edge Manufacturer phone #: 866-888-5503 9a-6p Retailer state: Allover U.S.A. & China). Incident: 1/14/2021: The cell phone was being charged for 10 - 15 minutes, when it caught fire/overheated. The night before the phone wasn't working properly and it would only charge up to 19%. The next day, he plugged the phone into the living room outlet and when he came back, smoke was emitting from the phone. He tried to grab the phone, but saw that the back had separated from the phone. He decided to take it outside and he noticed a lithium ion odor in his home. The phone was extremely hot to the touch, so he dropped it. He grabbed the phone a 2nd time and took it outside. He was able to get the battery out of the phone. However, he burned his right hand in the process. No Rx treatment was done. He used a shovel to place the phone in the snow. His home resembled a lithium ion odor for 2+ weeks. He contacted the manufacturer over 15 times and they asked for the phone back. Box sent to Corp instructed me put phone & battery in together even though they were separated. The UPS carrier refused take the battery back, because it was against the law to ship the damaged battery. The consumer claims that the carriers UPS Corporate Office said that the Samsung dealer had been shipping phone batteries through this method regularly and they should not be shipping batteries in this manner. The consumer said he spoke with UPS Corporate Office. They said they were unaware that Samsung was doing this and it was a big risk to drivers, trucks, packages, & the public. The consumer contact the manufacturer and they said that they would get in contact with the carrier and they had no knowledge of sh