Vallejo man's cell phone ignites in pocket, causing serious burns

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Vallejo man's cell phone ignites in pocket, causing serious burns
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...n171034S73.DTL

A cell phone apparently ignited in a man's pocket and started a fire that
burned his hotel room and caused severe burns over half his body, fire
department officials said.


Luis Picaso, 59, of Vallejo was in stable condition Monday at UC Davis
Medical Center with second and third-degree burns to his upper body, back,
right arm and right leg, Vallejo Fire Department assistant chief Kurt Henke
said.


Firefighters arrived at the residential hotel late Saturday night to find
Picaso lying on the bathroom floor after the cell phone in Picaso's pants
pocket set fire to his nylon and polyester clothes, department spokesman
Bill Tweedy said.


"It was either a malfunction or some type of glitch in his phone," Tweedy
said, adding that investigators found no other possible ignition source,
such as matches or open flame, nearby.


The flames spread to a plastic chair, setting off a sprinkler that held the
fire in check until firefighters arrived, he said.


Authorities declined to name the manufacturer and model of the phone.


The fire and water caused $75,000 damage to the room and a business on the
ground floor, Tweedy said.



--
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is
marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and
comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great
devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause. Who at the best, knows the
triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least
fails while daring greatly.
T.R. April 10, 1899

"Jim Higgins" <gordian238@hotmail.com> wrote in
news:12qq3ln9c8bate2@corp.supernews.com:

> A cell phone apparently ignited in a man's pocket and started a fire
> that burned his hotel room and caused severe burns over half his body,
> fire department officials said.
>
>

"Authorities declined to name the manufacturer and model of the phone."

I guess this answer the question of who SFGate or the city answers to....

Obviously, I was wrong and I'm sorry. Cellphones ARE hazardous to your
health!

The Lithium-Ion battery in any device, cellphone, laptop, playtoys is
always a potential chemical bomb simply waiting for the tiniest electrical
short to trigger it.

If you don't think so....REMOTELY short out an Li-Ion battery that will
still charge in the driveway and watch what it does. Imagine it going off
in your pocket.

He probably just sat on it.

Thanks for the link!

Larry
--
Extremely intelligent life exists that is so smart they never called Earth.

That's one hot cellphone!

"Jim Higgins" <gordian238@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:12qq3ln9c8bate2@corp.supernews.com...
> Back to soup cans and string
>
> Vallejo man's cell phone ignites in pocket, causing serious burns
> http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...n171034S73.DTL
>
> A cell phone apparently ignited in a man's pocket and started a fire that
> burned his hotel room and caused severe burns over half his body, fire
> department officials said.
>
>
> Luis Picaso, 59, of Vallejo was in stable condition Monday at UC Davis
> Medical Center with second and third-degree burns to his upper body, back,
> right arm and right leg, Vallejo Fire Department assistant chief Kurt
> Henke said.
>
>
> Firefighters arrived at the residential hotel late Saturday night to find
> Picaso lying on the bathroom floor after the cell phone in Picaso's pants
> pocket set fire to his nylon and polyester clothes, department spokesman
> Bill Tweedy said.
>
>
> "It was either a malfunction or some type of glitch in his phone," Tweedy
> said, adding that investigators found no other possible ignition source,
> such as matches or open flame, nearby.
>
>
> The flames spread to a plastic chair, setting off a sprinkler that held
> the fire in check until firefighters arrived, he said.
>
>
> Authorities declined to name the manufacturer and model of the phone.
>
>
> The fire and water caused $75,000 damage to the room and a business on the
> ground floor, Tweedy said.
>
>
>
> --
> The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is
> marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and
> comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great
> devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause. Who at the best, knows the
> triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least
> fails while daring greatly.
> T.R. April 10, 1899
>

Larry wrote:
> "Jim Higgins" <gordian238@hotmail.com> wrote in
> news:12qq3ln9c8bate2@corp.supernews.com:
>
>> A cell phone apparently ignited in a man's pocket and started a fire
>> that burned his hotel room and caused severe burns over half his body,
>> fire department officials said.
>>
>>
>
> "Authorities declined to name the manufacturer and model of the phone."
>
> I guess this answer the question of who SFGate or the city answers to....
>
> Obviously, I was wrong and I'm sorry. Cellphones ARE hazardous to your
> health!
>
> The Lithium-Ion battery in any device, cellphone, laptop, playtoys is
> always a potential chemical bomb simply waiting for the tiniest electrical
> short to trigger it.
>
> If you don't think so....REMOTELY short out an Li-Ion battery that will
> still charge in the driveway and watch what it does. Imagine it going off
> in your pocket.
>
> He probably just sat on it.
>
> Thanks for the link!
>
> Larry

While I agree that shorting a li-ion or li-po battery, or severe
overcharging, can lead to some 4th-of-july results, this scenario is
actually very rare with properly designed circuits.

I've watched enough electric-powered model airplane crashes on youtube
to say that lipos *can* be built safely, it just requires proper
protection circuitry which is obviously used. Lots of folks drill
electric RC planes into the ground at high speeds with mostly-charged
fairly high amperage battery packs (generally 1-4ah) and theres no
grenade-like effects *usually*, and the packs aren't even in a hard case
like a cellphone or laptop...

Personally I've tried blowing up a few "complete" liion packs from
laptops and cellphones with lame results. Unless I hit them with enough
voltage to jump across the protection (120VAC tends to work...) they
simply don't do anything except release a small about of magic smoke off
the components.

I wonder what the actual "random destructive failure" rate is compared
to the amount of batteries manufactured... I have a feeling you're
slightly more likely to get hit by lightning (which would also make a
great excuse for a li-ion/li-po pack to blow up)

I personally think we'll be seeing more of the random destructive
failures occurring as more products move over to lead-free solder.
Lead-free solder sounds like a really great idea - but its not.
Soldering lead is 100% recyclable, and the lead-free alternatives tend
to grow conductive crystal structures that will eventually short out any
board. The environment and pin separation dictates how long this will
take. Also, the fluxes that actually work with the lead-free stuff tend
to be more environmentally damaging than whats required to get good ol'
60/40 to flow well.

My first question would be if he had a factory or replacement battery. If
factory, which company was it?

"Jim Higgins" <gordian238@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:12qq3ln9c8bate2@corp.supernews.com...
> Back to soup cans and string
>
> Vallejo man's cell phone ignites in pocket, causing serious burns
> http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...n171034S73.DTL
>
> A cell phone apparently ignited in a man's pocket and started a fire that
> burned his hotel room and caused severe burns over half his body, fire
> department officials said.
>
>
> Luis Picaso, 59, of Vallejo was in stable condition Monday at UC Davis
> Medical Center with second and third-degree burns to his upper body, back,
> right arm and right leg, Vallejo Fire Department assistant chief Kurt
> Henke said.
>
>
> Firefighters arrived at the residential hotel late Saturday night to find
> Picaso lying on the bathroom floor after the cell phone in Picaso's pants
> pocket set fire to his nylon and polyester clothes, department spokesman
> Bill Tweedy said.
>
>
> "It was either a malfunction or some type of glitch in his phone," Tweedy
> said, adding that investigators found no other possible ignition source,
> such as matches or open flame, nearby.
>
>
> The flames spread to a plastic chair, setting off a sprinkler that held
> the fire in check until firefighters arrived, he said.
>
>
> Authorities declined to name the manufacturer and model of the phone.
>
>
> The fire and water caused $75,000 damage to the room and a business on the
> ground floor, Tweedy said.
>
>
>
> --
> The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is
> marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and
> comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great
> devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause. Who at the best, knows the
> triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least
> fails while daring greatly.
> T.R. April 10, 1899
>