A Detroit woman is feeling lucky to be alive after she said her Samsung phone exploded and set her car on fire.
The woman, who has asked to remain anonymous, was driving around 10pm on May 21 with both her Samsung Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S8 placed in the car’s cup holder.
She saw a spark from the corner of her eye and immediately pulled over. Just moments later, her Nissan Maxima burst into flames.
A Detroit woman is feeling lucky to be alive after she said her Samsung phone exploded and set her car (pictured) on fire
The woman was driving around 10pm on May 21 with both her Samsung Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S8 placed in the car’s cup holder. Pictured is the remnants of the exploding phone
‘I thought I was going to die when I saw the sparks and the fire,’ she told WXYZ.
‘It happened quickly. It just went up in flames. People were telling me to get away from the car. What if I was on the highway stuck in traffic and couldn’t get out.’
The woman was not injured and the Detroit Fire Department immediately opened an investigation.
Arson has already been ruled out, according to Second Deputy Commissioner Chuck Simms.
‘It is not considered to be something suspicious,’ Simms told ABC News.
The woman made her claim to Samsung, and said she was shocked when the company sent her an entire ‘recovery box’ kit to return what was left of the phone.
The woman saw a spark from the corner of her eye and immediately pulled over. Just moments later, her Nissan Maxima burst into flames
The woman was not injured and the Detroit Fire Department immediately opened an investigation. Arson has already been ruled out
Included in the kit was a pair of blue gloves, a static-sensitive bag, and illustrated step-by-step instructions on how to mail back the phone.
‘Samsung asked her to use rubber gloves to take all the pieces from the car that look like part of the phone and put them in the pre-stamped box,’ Gerald Thurswell, the woman’s attorney, explained.
‘I hear this and it’s like “What the…?” Is this a regular course of business? How often is this occurring to get a whole set of procedures down?’
But Samsung defended the recovery box, saying the company was merely following federal guidelines on how to ship ‘potentially dangerous or hazardous material’.
‘We stand behind the quality and safety of the millions of Samsung phones in the United States,’ the company added in a statement.
‘We are eager to conduct a full investigation of this matter and until we are able to examine all of the evidence, it is impossible to determine the true cause of any incident.’
‘I thought I was going to die when I saw the sparks and the fire,’ the woman said. ‘It happened quickly. It just went up in flames’
‘We go to great lengths to obtain all pertinent information in order to do a thorough analysis.’
The recovery box, it should be noted, came with instructions for a phone that reads ‘Samsung Note 7’.
That particular model made headlines in 2016 with repeated instances of exploding or catching fire.
Similar to the woman in Detroit, a car caught on fire in Port St Lucie, Florida in September 2016 after the phone blew up while charging in a man’s car.
And earlier that month, US authorities banned passengers from using the phone during flights.
Some airlines also stated they could not be added to checked luggage, fearing they would explode or catch on fire in the hold.
The phone was then recalled by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, just two weeks after its release.
The woman made her claim to Samsung, and said she was shocked when the company sent her an entire ‘recovery box’ kit to return what was left of the phone (pictured)
Now the woman and her attorney are hoping Samsung can determine which phone exploded and issue an immediate recall
Samsung asked users around the world to ‘immediately’ return their existing Galaxy Note 7 and get a replacement.
While neither of the Detroit woman’s phones are on the recall list, there have been instances in which Samsung Galaxy S4 phones have also exploded.
Last year an Australian schoolgirl was left with first-degree burns after the phone exploded in her lap and caught her skirt on fire.
While the Detroit woman has not yet filed a lawsuit, Thurswell had Samsung send experts to his law office instead of sending the phone back.
‘They came here with an engineer and spent two hours examining the pieces and they tell me “We’ll get back to you”‘, he said.
‘I told them, “Please get these phones recalled. Do something. You’re the experts!'”
‘Once it’s determined which of the phones [exploded] and that one is recalled, we’ll probably save lives.’