Vancouver man's smartphone bursts into flames

Photo: CTV News

One man had a "crazy moment" while driving in Vancouver this weekend.

It wasn't what happened outside the car that was crazy, it was what was going on in the passenger seat where his Samsung smartphone sat... and then burst into flames.

Matt Chernoff told CTV Vancouver yesterday about the incident.

“When you’re looking at it, it’s completely charred,” Chernoff told CTV News.

He's had the phone since 2016; the model, a Samsung S7, was released after previous Samsung products had similar issues.

Luckily for Chernoff, his daughter wasn't holding it at the time and he was able to pull into a parkade to put out the flames.

“A huge flame erupts right next to me and that’s essentially my phone. I’m freaking out,” he recalled to CTV. “Right away I pulled it out, whipped it to the ground, and started dumping water on it. What is going on right now?”

Samsung's Note 7 phone faced a similar issue when it was released in 2016. The S7, which was released afterwards and used as a replacement for the Note 7. However, it has faced complaints as well.

Chernoff says he wants more answers from the company and Canadian regulators.

“These things get manufactured millions of times. You might get a lemon,” he said. “But is your lemon going to catch fire?”

- With files from CTV News Vancouver