Sony PSP catches fire in kid's pocket

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2008-02-07 12:10pm

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/15231726/detail.html

Child Burned By Video Game In Pocket

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. -- A child was burned at Warner Middle School in Farmington Hills when the video game in his pants pocket caught on fire around 9 a.m. on Wednesday

Police said the fire burned a hole in his pants and Harold Clay, 12, suffered minor burns.

"He said it wasn't a gradual heat. It really started heating up. He's always been taught, burn- fire- smoke, you drop and you roll. So, he was in his band class and he dropped and rolled," said the victim's mother Sheila Clay.

A teacher was able to get the player away from the Harold

The video game was a Sony PSP.

Police said the player overheated and exploded.

The school was placed on lockdown so emergency personnel could get through the building to help the child.

The lockdown has been lifted.

Harold was treated at the hospital for second-degree burns to the leg and was back in school later that afternoon.

Ironically, the name of the game that was inside the player was called Burn Out.

"It was unbelievable, because it wasn't on. It was just in his pocket," said the victim's father, Harold Clay.

Harold's parents said they plan to contact Sony to see if any other cases have been reported.

Police are still investigating the cause.

If you click on the link, they have a picture of the burned-up PSP.

Darth Raptor · Post by **Darth Raptor** » 2008-02-07 12:21pm

Didn't Sony make those exploding laptop batteries too? That's awesome.

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2008-02-07 12:51pm

Well, this makes me glad I haven't decided to get a PSP yet. . .but this smells of a potential class-action lawsuit in the making. I wonder if this was a newer model or one of the older ones?

TimothyC · Post by **TimothyC** » 2008-02-07 12:55pm

While it is good that he wasn't hurt any worse than he was, I want to know why the Kid had a PSP on him at school in the first place.

[R_H] · Post by **[R_H]** » 2008-02-07 01:05pm

"He said it wasn't a gradual heat. It really started heating up. He's always been taught, burn- fire- smoke, you drop and you roll. So, he was in his band class and he dropped and rolled," said the victim's mother Sheila Clay.

Why didn't he try to remove the PSP from his pocket, instead of dropping and rolling?

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2008-02-07 01:14pm

That sure looks like the cell decided to spontaneously ignite, as with that exploding Dell in Japan last year which used Sony batteries. I can't imagine what would set it off that way, but modern devices are so energy intensive they need lithium cells, and lithium isn't exactly the nicest of metals to have next to your gonads when in a faulty device.

Fortunately, the new francium cells will solve these issues...

SilverWingedSeraph · Post by **SilverWingedSeraph** » 2008-02-07 01:15pm

[R_H] wrote:
"He said it wasn't a gradual heat. It really started heating up. He's always been taught, burn- fire- smoke, you drop and you roll. So, he was in his band class and he dropped and rolled," said the victim's mother Sheila Clay.
Why didn't he try to remove the PSP from his pocket, instead of dropping and rolling?

Maybe because it was on fire, and the kid didn't want to burn his fucking hands too? And because, gee, they teach kids to stop drop and roll, and fortunately the kid did, otherwise he possibly could have been hurt worse. He certainly could have been if he followed the logic "hey, this shit is really hot. Burning, in fact. Oh well, I'll reach into my pocket and remove it with my bare hand."

General Zod · Post by **General Zod** » 2008-02-07 01:15pm

[R_H] wrote:
"He said it wasn't a gradual heat. It really started heating up. He's always been taught, burn- fire- smoke, you drop and you roll. So, he was in his band class and he dropped and rolled," said the victim's mother Sheila Clay.
Why didn't he try to remove the PSP from his pocket, instead of dropping and rolling?

Did you look at the picture of the PSP in the link? There's no way he would've been able to remove it with his bare hands.

[R_H] · Post by **[R_H]** » 2008-02-07 03:05pm

General Zod wrote:
Did you look at the picture of the PSP in the link? There's no way he would've been able to remove it with his bare hands.

Now that I saw the picture, I can see why he wouldn't have been able to take it out of his pocket. He's lucky he only suffered mild burns.

Post by **Edi** » 2008-02-07 03:19pm

2nd degree burns are NOT mild. Though he could have suffered worse. I've seen a cell phone battery spontaneously combust, a friend of mine took it out if his pocket, unlocked the keys and the thing nearly burned his hands. No flames, but lots of smoke, a burning smell and a lot of heat. The whole phone was a writeoff.

I suppose it would be caused by some flaw in the electronics shorting something that shouldn't and then interacting with the lithium.

Executor32 · Post by **Executor32** » 2008-02-07 03:36pm

General Zod wrote:Well, this makes me glad I haven't decided to get a PSP yet. . .but this smells of a potential class-action lawsuit in the making. I wonder if this was a newer model or one of the older ones?

Going by the video, it appears to have been an older PSP.

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2008-02-07 06:01pm

SilverWingedSeraph wrote:
[R_H] wrote:
"He said it wasn't a gradual heat. It really started heating up. He's always been taught, burn- fire- smoke, you drop and you roll. So, he was in his band class and he dropped and rolled," said the victim's mother Sheila Clay.
Why didn't he try to remove the PSP from his pocket, instead of dropping and rolling?
Maybe because it was on fire, and the kid didn't want to burn his fucking hands too? And because, gee, they teach kids to stop drop and roll, and fortunately the kid did, otherwise he possibly could have been hurt worse. He certainly could have been if he followed the logic "hey, this shit is really hot. Burning, in fact. Oh well, I'll reach into my pocket and remove it with my bare hand."

It might have been a good idea for him to just try to remove his pants as quickly as possible, but...I can't really blame him for not thinking of dropping trou in the middle of band class.

Good thing that he's (mostly) okay, at least.

KlavoHunter · Post by **KlavoHunter** » 2008-02-07 06:05pm

It's not a malfunction, it's a feature!

This is beyond bizarre, but I'm glad to see that this doesn't happen more often.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2008-02-07 07:12pm

The Mk50 torpedo is powered by a steam turbine that draws its energy from a solid block of lithium that melts as its sprayed with sulfur hexafluoride. That shit is pretty much the strongest source of controlled chemical energy release you can get that’s remotely practical, making it very not surprising that lithium batteries can fuck up in all sorts of ways. Its not like previous generations of batteries couldn’t explode anyway.

Sony’s had a couple batteries go bad, but I suspect they also make an absurdly large number of batteries, and that man instances of other battery malfunctions just don’t make it to the media.