Uh Oh! Samsung Galaxy Note 9 Fire Incident in New York

Aw, Samsung! I thought we were past this! When several people were saying that the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 was going to be the hottest phone of the year, this probably wasn’t what they had in mind. The New York Post is reporting that a Galaxy Note 9 caught fire inside of a woman’s purse.

According to the report, real estate agent Diane Chung of New York was using her new smartphone in an elevator when it “became extremely hot.” At that point, she decided to stop using her phone and put it inside her purse. Shortly thereafter, she heard a “whistling and screeching sound” and noticed some “thick smoke” coming out of her bag.

Understandably, Diane Chung got was spooked. She dropped her purse on the floor of the elevator and emptied it out. When she grabbed the phone — which was still smoking — she reportedly burnt her fingers.

She was “extremely panicked” and dropped the phone. A passerby picked up the phone with a cloth and dropped it in a bucket of water when Chung reached the lobby of the builder. The experience was reportedly “traumatic” for Chung and she is now seeking “unspecified damages.” She is also seeking to bar sales of the Galaxy Note 9.

Of course, this brings back memories of the exploding batteries of the Galaxy Note7. I really liked that handset until it became such a safety hazard. Samsung took the safer step of shrinking the battery capacity in the Galaxy Note8, but they’ve since gone back up with the Galaxy Note9.

At this point, we obviously can’t be completely certain that the batteries are to blame. And, for the time being, this is being treated as an isolated incident.

Samsung released an official statement saying that they take “customer safety very seriously” and that they “stand behind the quality of the millions of Galaxy devices in use in the United States.” For now, Samsung has “not received any reports of similar incidents involving a Galaxy Note9 device” and are “investigating the matter.”