A BARNSLEY man whose smartphone caught fire in the night says he owes his life to his new smoke alarm.
Alan Brown says he is lucky to be alive but wants to warn others about the dangers of leaving their phones on charge when they go to bed.
Alan, 57, of Henshall Street, said: "I woke up to the sound of my smoke alarm. I could smell the smoke, so I rubbed my eyes, turned over and just saw flames coming from my phone."
He said Samsung had offered to replace the phone with a more up-to-date model, provided he sign a disclaimer to agree that he is happy with the new phone as a 'final settlement' for the incident.
A spokesman for Samsung said: "The safety of customers is our top priority and we take incidents like this very seriously. We will be conducting a thorough examination to determine the exact cause of this incident. We would like to assure our customers that we always employ strict quality control and safety standards to ensure a safe user experience."
** The full story is in the Barnsley Chronicle newspaper, dated July 17. **
