Apple Investigating After iPhone 7 Plus Reportedly Explodes, Catches Fire

Image courtesy of @briannaolivas_

Four months after Apple launched an investigation into the alleged fire of an iPhone 7 device in Australia, the tech giant is opening a similar inquiry stateside after video posted this week shows an Arizona teen’s iPhone 7 Plus smoldering in its case. 

Gizmodo reports that Apple is looking into the incident, which was recorded and posted on Twitter Wednesday.

In the video, you can see smoke drifting out of the iPhone 7 Plus and the case partially melted.

https://twitter.com/briannaolivas_/status/834556234166448128

The woman tells Gizmodo that the day before the explosion she had taken the phone to the Sprint store where it was purchased in January after it wouldn’t turn on.

At the store, the owner says an employee said the phone “looked weird” when it turned on, but that diagnostics found nothing wrong with the device.

The following morning, after the phone appeared to be working fine, the woman’s boyfriend removed it from an Apple charger and placed it on a dresser.

While the man was in the restroom, he noticed the device was steaming and then heard a squealing noise. When he approached the phone he saw it was on fire, the woman tells Gizmodo, grabbed it, and threw it in the bathroom. At that point more smoke was filtering out of the device.

The woman says that Apple immediately replaced the device and has the broken phone in its possession.

“We are in touch with the customer and looking into it,” a spokesperson for Apple tells Gizmodo.

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