A Seattle man says he's considering suing Apple after he was burned when his iPhone exploded in his back pocket.
Jason Matt says he was working in the kitchen of 88 Keys Piano Bar in Pioneer Square Saturday morning when he smelled something on fire.
“I started seeing smoke and I thought the kitchen was on fire,” Matt said. “Then I felt intense searing pain in my back pocket.”
He then realized his iPhone 6 Plus had exploded and was burning right through his pants.
“I reached under my pants. I felt flesh bubbling up. It was one of the most intense pain(s) I have ever experienced,” Matt said.
Just last year a man in New York says his iPhone 5 exploded in his pocket, giving him third-degree burns on his leg the size of a football.
Tech experts have reported that even minor damage to a phone’s circuit board, or the use of third-party charging devices, can cause the battery to overheat and spew lithium lava.
Documents uncovered by KIRO 7 linked the problems to lithium batteries in other investigations.
Matt says his phone incident caused him second-degree burns. It also affected him mentally.
“As a former Marine, I really have bad anxiety,” Matt said. “This triggered one of the worst anxiety attacks I have ever had.”
He is now considering hiring an attorney to help file a lawsuit against Apple.
“They need to be held accountable. Obviously, there’s a flaw in the phone,” Matt said. “This is not a cheap phone. It’s one of the top phones in the world so I think it needs to be evaluated.”
