How many people charge their phone or tablet on or near their bed while they sleep?
An 11-year-old boy and his parents are warning those who like to sleep with their electronics nearby to reconsider after a scary incident caused the boy’s tablet to melt into his bed.
“The last thing anyone wants is to wake up and find their child seriously injured or dead because a tablet or phone has set fire in their room,” the boy’s father said according to the Daily Mail.
Like many people nowadays, 11-year-old Callum Hewkin took his tablet to bed so he could fall asleep to a TV show. He left the Samsung device plugged in and drifted off to sleep.
At some point during the night the tablet started to overheat.
Callum’s parents, Amy and Stewart Hewkin, were unaware their son had taken the tablet to bed – they have a no electronics rule at night – and they didn’t realize the potential danger everyone could have been in until Callum woke Amy up the next morning.
“We feel like we’ve had a lucky escape – Callum’s life could have been at risk,” Stewart said.
When he woke up he thought he smelled burning plastic, but blamed it on the family home’s close proximity to factories. He had no idea the smell was coming from his son’s bed.
As soon as his wife screamed, Stewart ran upstairs and discovered the frightening sight.
“I went into Callum’s room and there was a big burn mark right by where his head had been, and the room was full of white smoke,” he said.
Callum’s room was full of smoke.
“I was gobsmacked, I never thought it would happen to us or that something like that even could happen – you don’t expect an iPad or tablet to just start burning like that.”
“It is quite terrifying.”
According to the Daily Mail, fire crews said if the tablet was left in its current condition for just a few more minutes than it could have been a fatal accident.
Even though there was a lot of smoke in the 11-year-old’s room, Callum’s door stopped the smoke from triggering the home’s smoke detectors.
After the scary ordeal, the entire family and the fire department are warning others to unplug their devices and take them off flammable surfaces before they go to sleep.
“We went to bed the next night and we didn’t put our phones on charge or anything, we turned off all the plugs by the wall. We were terrified it could happen again. The plug and cable were still in perfect condition and it can’t be our home’s electrics because they didn’t trip. How could this not be a faulty tablet, when the battery itself has basically exploded?”
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