A woman was set on fire when a cellphone battery exploded while she was at a Florida gym on Tuesday.
Jackie Marinas was at a Planet Fitness in Hialeah when the battery of a Samsung Galaxy I-9300 suddenly exploded, setting her hair on fire, CBS Miami reported.
"I was going to get some water, I heard the boom," Marinas told the station. "I thought it was a firecracker. It sounded kind of loud but then I felt the heat in my arm. Somebody yelled 'your hair is on fire.' "
The exploding battery did not belong to Marinas. Patrons at the gym said the battery fell out of someone's pocket as they were working out. Marinas was the only one injured in the explosion.
"My face started irritating (sic) because of the chemicals, the lithium. I had it all over my hair, my face," Marinas told CBS Miami.
The woman was taken to a hospital for treatment. Doctors were concerned the chemicals might have made it into her lungs, but Marinas was eventually released.
Cases of exploding cellphone batteries are on the rise, according to consumer safety groups. New York Senator Chuck Schumer is backing legislation that will ban phone companies from using inexpensive batteries that do not adhere to safety standards, CBS Miami reported.
Samsung released a statement after Tuesday's incident.
"Samsung investigates all consumer reports of issues with product safety. We would like to reach out to the affected customer so that we can retrieve the product to determine the cause of the issue," read the statement obtained by CBS Miami.
Marinas said she was relieved to know the incident was just a "freak accident" and not the result of a "homemade device."
"It was really scary with everything happening. Yesterday being the one year anniversary of the Boston bombing it was a little bit freaky," Marinas told CBS Miami.
