Samsung Galaxy S4 on charge catches fire as Dubai owner sleeps

A proud owner of the new Samsung Galaxy S4 got the fright of her life when she woke up one fine night last month only to find her one-month-old smartphone, which she’d plugged in for charging overnight, “burning” in the middle of the night.

“I cannot explain to you my extreme frustration, disappointment and extreme fear when I found my brand new Samsung Galaxy S4 burning at the charger connection to the phone,” the Abu Dhabi-based Sarah Shurrab, who'd bought the new Galaxy S4 from an Etisalat shop, wrote to Samsung, and emailed a copy of the same to Emirates 24|7.

Sarah is what you'd call an early adopter of the new Galaxy S4 smartphone – she bought the device on May 29, 2013, within one month of the new S4 being available in the UAE. “Sadly, one month later [after she bought the Galaxy S4], the phone was found burning, while charging. It’s only thanks to God that I woke up in the middle of the night and controlled the burning before it could cause damage to my home and family,” she wrote.

“I woke up in the middle of the night to [attend to] my toddler, and it was about 2am at night. I think it was charging for about 3 hours by then,” Sarah told us, and also sent us pictures of the burnt smartphone. We have reproduced some of them for you. While these pictures appear convincing and genuine, there have been reports in the past of people deliberately setting their phones on fire or even microwave them to get some attention.

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