‘Switched off’, ‘unplugged’ OnePlus phone catches fire; company responds

OnePlus says it has already reached out to user and is investigating the matter.

OnePlus One catches fire (HT Photo)

A OnePlus phone caught fire earlier this week despite being in switched off and unplugged mode, its user Rahul Himalian reported.

User said he woke up "suddenly by suffocating and nauseating fumes generated" by his "fuming and flaming One Plus One Mobile." According to user, the incident took place on July 3. He also pointed out that his room conditioner was also maintaining room temperature at 19 degrees centigrade.

Himanlian's friend Chaiti Narulam posted the screenshot of the complaint and photos of burnt phone on Twitter.

In his complain, Himalian wrote, "On seeing the fumes filled in the room, I immediately splashed water on to the device to douse the fumes and flames. Had I not got up to this odd hour, the mobile would have exploded and caused vital/fatal injury to me."

 

Someone I know just got saved from fatality. @OnePlus_IN @oneplus how do you explain your phone exploding out of the blue???! Kids use your phone as it's attractively priced. Where is the responsibility to fix this? pic.twitter.com/CRgmF6RTBB

— Chaiti Narula (@Chaiti) July 3, 2019

Himalian asserted that his OnePlus One is now a five-year-old model but he pointed out the phone is "least expected to explode and endanger human life at any point of time." "It is an inherent manufacturing defect for which both OnePlus and Amazon, the seller should own up responsibility and redress the grievance immediately," he added.

OnePlus has responded to the post and said it has launched a probe.

"We take such incidents seriously. Our team has already reached out to the user and is investigating this further," said the company in a statement.

This is not the first time a smartphone has caught fire or exploded. Back in 2016, a Chandigarh user also faced similar problem with his OnePlus One phone. Over the years, there have been several reports of phones from brands like Xiaomi, Motorola and others catching fire. The most notable one, however, is Samsung's Galaxy Note 7 which was ultimately recalled and taken out of production following reports of battery explosions.