A schoolboy has been left scarred for life after a Blackberry mobile phone exploded and set his bed on fire.
Kian McCreath, 11, fled from his bedroom screaming in the middle of the night after flames engulfed his legs when the phone blew up while he was asleep.
Kian’s mother Sarah, 39, was woken by her son screaming “my bed is on fire” when the Blackberry device belonging to brother Mason, 13, malfunctioned and spontaneously combusted at 2.30am last Sunday.
After running into his room at their home in Coventry,West Mids., to find the bottom of Kian’s duvet and mattress alight Sarah frantically smothered the fire using a quilt.
The youngster was rushed to University Hospital Coventry in agony with melted plastic stuck to his legs and was treated for nasty burns to his right foot and left leg.
Speaking about the terrifying ordeal, Sarah, an administrative assistant, told how her son has been unable to sleep since the blaze – and is too scared to even use his own mobile phone.
She said: “I couldn’t sleep that night so I came downstairs to have a cup of tea.
“As I left my room I noticed Mason’s phone on charge on the landing. I know the phone has an alarm he uses, so I unplugged it and plonked it on Kian’s bed.
“I thought nothing of it, made a cup of tea and went back to bed and a short time later as I was dropping off to sleep I heard a really loud `pop’ sound.
“The next thing I know Kian started screaming at the top of his voice, shouting “my bed’s on fire!”
“It was just horrific.
“He was in a lot of pain as his feet had pretty much been engulfed in flames.
“I ran into the room and started battering the flames with his brother’s quilt to put them out.
“The bed was charred and the phone itself was just a blackened shell. It could have easily been much worse if he hadn’t have woken up.
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“If I had left the phone on the landing, the whole house could have gone up. You just don’t expect this to happen with a mobile phone.
“You wouldn’t think something so small could do so much damage – my son could quite easily have died.
“It sends a shudder down my spine to think what could have happened.
“He hasn’t been able to use his own mobile phone since and is having trouble sleeping. He is going to be scarred for life as well.
“I have to check everything is unplugged before we go to bed but it’s always on my mind and I struggle to sleep as well.
“Thousands of children will be receiving these phones as Christmas gifts, parents need to be aware of the dangers before somebody dies.”
Year 7 pupil Kian, who attends Cardinal Newman School, added: “It was really scary. I woke up with my legs in a fire at the bottom of my bed.
“I ran out of my room just screaming my head off and my mum came running up the stairs and luckily put out the flames.
“I have a Samsung mobile but I don’t really use it loads – but now I’m scared to use it at all.
“I’m also having problems sleeping at night.”
The family are now demanding the popular Blackberry Curve 9320 mobile is recalled from shops in time for Christmas.
Dad Pete McCreath, 39, bought the £13 a month mobile phone for Kian’s brother Mason from the Vodafone shop in Birmingham, a week earlier as a 13th birthday present.
Carpenter Pete added: “If Sarah hadn’t acted so quickly that room could have gone up in flames within minutes.
“It was just lucky she got there so quickly.
“I’m shaking just talking about it. If it had been any worse I could have my sons in boxes right now.
“Kian has burns to his lower legs where it exploded. It’s left him mentally scarred as well. Kian won’t even go back into his bedroom.
“What I want now is for them to recall all these phones before there is a fatality.”
Pete has kept the charred remains of the £99 handset while Mason has been offered a replacement phone by Vodafone.
Pete also added that he had a video conference with Blackberry manufacturers Research in Motion over his concerns.
A spokesman from Research in Motion said: “We take claims of this nature very seriously and are investigating this matter as a priority.“
“Thousands of children will be receiving these phones as Christmas gifts, parents need to be aware of the dangers before somebody dies.”
– Yes parents need to be aware their kids want iphones or Android phones not Blackberry!!!!
Won’t somebody PLEASE think of the children!!
all phones with lithium poly cells could do this.
The phone had an aftermarket case (clearly visible in the photograph), doubt RIM will entertain any claims as this probably caused it to overheat
What are children doing with business phones? and I wonder what he was using it for in bed, hmmm, bad parenting..
Why did she drop it onto his bed when he was sleeping and not leave it charging. Surely the alarm would go off in the morning?
you’d have thought by now, phone manufacturers would have been able to stop this from happening. I mean, i put my phone on charge every night because i use it in the day all day, so when i sleep is when i don’t use my phone. they should have a switch off timer when the phone is fully charged. But i’ve got to admit, Blackberrys are sh**, get an android or iPhone, much better phones!
Blackberry’s are good but I just can’t believe this would happen. I have a bb myself and they are amazing. When I heard this I didn’t believe it until I saw proof!!!!
This has scam written all over it. The phone “exploded and burnt” but the orange cover was left in perfect condition? The kid can’t use his own phone and is scarred for life, but has no problems posing with the bad phone. And what wasn’t written is that RIM wants to inspect the device, the battery and the charger, and the family now says they don’t know where they are. I call fraud.
Why on earth would you place a phone on someone’s bed??? People are just too stupid these days!!!
what about the case. why didnt that burn?