Exploding Smartphone Reportedly Caused the Death of Malaysian CEO

Smartphones have been known to explode and cause extensive property damages, and even injuries. The catastrophic series of events involving the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 are the most obvious examples of this fact. In Malaysia, such an event reportedly caused the death of a CEO of a venture capitalist firm. According to initial reports, the device caught fire while charging and exploded, causing blast injuries.

The victim of this event is Nazrin Hassan, CEO of VC firm Cradle Fund, Gizmodo reports. Initial reports painted a conflicting picture of exactly what happened, and at the time, authorities urged for patience as they finished investigating the matter.

Among the initial theories on the cause of death put forward were blunt force trauma, smoke inhalation, and actual blast injuries from the exploding device. According to a press release by the company, however, it would appear that it was due to injuries caused by the blast. The post-mortem examination of Hassan’s injuries reportedly confirmed this.

With regards to the smartphone that exploded, it would seem that Hassan owned two. One was a BlackBerry and the other was a Huawei phone. This was according to the victim’s brother-in-law. For now, it’s unknown which of these devices blew up and caused Hassan’s death.

It’s also worth pointing out that the explosion caused by a smartphone is unlikely to create a lethal projectile. Smartphone parts simply don’t have the properties that would turn them into effective shrapnel.

On the other hand, if the device was near enough to almost come in contact with a person’s skin, it could cause burns if it explodes. Such incidents have been known to happen. Most of the time, however, such incidents involve short bursts of flames and sparks. If those flames somehow catch other flammable objects in the process, catastrophe could ensue as it would then cause a fire.