Since Samsung's mobile phone shocked the world with the fire of the Galaxy Note 7 seven years ago, it has caught fire again, raising the controversy of product defects.

According to Yonhap News coverage today (7th), 11-year-old A living in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, was riding a bicycle with a mobile phone bag at a playground near his home on the 10th of last month.

At that time, a friend who was riding a bicycle with him informed him that there was smoke coming from Party A's mobile phone bag, and when Party A looked at it, he found that the mobile phone and the inside of the bag were already on fire.

Troop A threw the burning mobile phone on the ground and stomped on it with his foot to put out the fire, but the cell phone was so caught off fire that it was almost impossible to make out its shape.


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A friend was alarmed and called 119 as well.

Group A's mobile phone was an entry-level Buddy 3 model purchased in March.

His mother, Mr. B, said that the mobile phone spontaneously caught fire and almost injured the child, so she contacted Samsung Electronics to investigate the cause and ask for compensation.

However, Samsung's response to collecting and examining the damaged mobile phone was very different from Mr. B's expectations.

X-rays revealed that three of the cellphone's batteries were cracked, indicating that they had been impacted by an external impact and had caused a fire.

In the end, they argued that it was not the problem of the phone itself, and that they could not even compensate them because the battery caught fire after the shock was the fault of the customer.

On the 2th, we also collected the mobile phone that had been lent to Party A.

Mr. B said, "It is difficult for me to accept Samsung's explanation because the mobile phone that the child was carrying in his bag without any problems before the accident caught fire. The child stomped on the phone to extinguish the light, but he said he had never shocked the battery until then."

He said, "Why is it my child's fault that the cell phone is on fire? I doubt that Samsung is right about making the best mobile phones. Something unthinkable happened in Korea, so we waited for the results of the investigation for 3 days, and Samsung passed the blame on to the consumer."

A Samsung Electronics official said, "X-ray examination revealed that battery damage caused by excessive external force was the cause of the fire. Since the Galaxy Note 7 fire, thorough safety measures have been put in place, and no similar incidents have been reported since. If the customer doesn't acknowledge the findings, they have to have an external agency verify them."

Since its release in August 10, Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Note 7 has been discontinued two months after announcing a full recall after a month due to a series of fire incidents at home and abroad.

The U.S. and Canada have caused such a stir that they have stopped using the Galaxy Note 7 on airplanes.

Samsung estimated the cost of the recall alone at 2016.8 trillion won at the time.

(Photo = Courtesy of informant, Yonhap News)