A Facebook post about the explosion of a mobile phone has gone viral in Malaysia.
Tengku Khalidah Tengku Bidin, who works as an entertainment editor of Utusan Malaysia, said his daughter's handset caught fire while it was plugged in for charging on Saturday. The post has been shared over 26,000 times and received more than 10,000 comments since it was uploaded.
Tengku Khalidah said the incident happened at 9.30 am on Saturday while her daughter Dina was charging her phone at their Setiawangsa home.
She said about 30 minutes after the charger was plugged in, the phone started emitting smoke and fire. It also burnt the pillow it was resting on.
In an interview with The Star Online she said: "I was in the kitchen and was shocked when my daughter shouted Mommy api ... api. (fire...fire.)". She said she immediately rushed to turn off the main power switch for her home to prevent a short circuit. She said she thinks the handphone's battery was the cause of the incident.
"We were very lucky that no one was holding the handphone. I have always reminded my daughter not to use the handphone when it is being charged," she said on her Facebook.
Tengku Khalidah, who also serves as the Malaysia Entertainment Reporters and Writers Association president, said this experience has served as a lesson for her.
She said she was really grateful that no one was hurt in the mishap. "I urge the public to be more careful when charging their hand phones so that this incident does not recur. Take this as a lesson," she added.
This is the third incident of charging phone explosion in Malaysia. On April 15, a 30-year-old woman was electrocuted while using her phone at her home in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur and again last month a fisherman suffered from serious injuries when the hand phone he was charging exploded as he was about to take a call.
