***Story originally aired March 25, 2013***
Two viewers have contacted CTV with some serious safety concerns after they claim their Apple products started smoking and, in one case, caught fire while charging.
Lisa Tschirner and her husband are huge Apple fans. They own iPhones, iPads, iPods, an iMac and even an iBaby monitor. So they were shocked when their iPhone 4 suddenly caught fire as it was charging in the kitchen one night.
“There is my iPhone sitting on the charger and it has white smoke coming out of it and a flame coming out,” said Tschirner.
The iPhone was fried. Apple claimed the dock connector inside the phone looked like it was corroded, likely after being exposed to liquid or dust. That caused a short circuit, which led to a heat build up and fire.
"Their products shouldn't be lighting on fire, I mean I think that's the bottom line," said Tschirner.
Jeff Farnese grabbed his video camera last November, when he noticed his iPod melting down as it was being charged.
"I heard a popping noise and I turned around and I ran to it and smoke was coming out of it, pouring out and sparks were flying all over the ground," said Farnese.
Several other Apple owners have posted videos on YouTube of product malfunctions. There are videos of a melted charger, bloated batteries and even a news report of an iPhone 4 fire onboard a flight to Australia.
CTV put requests in to Apple’s media relations eight times, but received no response.
"There's something going on, but they are not willing to acknowledge it and that's the most frustrating part," said Tschirner.
On CTV’s 9th attempt to contact Apple for reaction to these safety concerns, the company sent an email which read, “Apple declines to comment.”
After the CTV story aired, Apple did contact the Tschirners and arranged to have their phone replaced with a new iPhone 5.
Apple's not the only company experiencing product fires and malfunctions. BlackBerry launched an investigation last December after an 11-year old boy in England claimed to suffer burns to his leg when a BlackBerry Curve spontaneously combusted. And a man in South Korea claims he received second degree burns when his Samsung Galaxy Note caught fire.
Apple did issue a recall on older iPods in 2011 because of fire concerns. The recall involved the first generation iPod Nano. The company issued a news release that stated, "in very rare cases, the battery in the iPod Nano (1st generation) may overheat and pose a safety risk."
Affected iPod Nanos were sold between September 2005 and December 2006. Apple insists that the battery issue was isolated and it did offer up free replacements. If you own one of those older models click here for more product recall information.
