4-Year-Old Girl Suffers Serious Burns On Her Hand After Smartwatch Explodes

A 4-year-old girl in China suffered serious injuries when her smartwatch exploded while she was playing with her cousin.

The incident took place in the city of Quanzhou in Fujian earlier this month. The girl and her 3-year-old cousin were playing under the supervision of her grandmother when the watch exploded, Yahoo News Australia reported Saturday.

The grandmother told local media she heard a loud “bang,” followed by the victim screaming. She rushed into the room and found it covered in thick smoke. The victim was crying and trying to remove the watch from her wrist, the grandmother said.

“After seeing the child’s burn injuries, my family was very distressed," the victim's father, identified as Huang, said.

Doctors diagnosed third-degree burns on the patient’s hand and carried out a skin graft to speed up healing. This process also reduces the risk of infection. The victim, identified only as Yiyi, is currently in hospital under observation following the procedure.

Yiyi's father said he has contacted the unnamed smartwatch manufacturer about compensation, MensXP reported. He also said the smartwatch was purchased online, and a SIM card was not inserted inside it. However, the date of the purchase was not revealed.

This is not the first time report of a smartwatch exploding or catching fire.

Earlier this year, a man filed a lawsuit against Apple when an Apple Watch N+ S3 caused burns after it overheated. David Borg, 31, had suffered burns and psychiatric injury as a result, the court documents stated, according to News.com.au. The incident took place in Australia in September. Borg had purchased the device from an Apple store in Maribyrnong in August 2018.

Similarly, a man, identified as Ethan Landers, claimed in 2019 that he suffered third-degree burns after his Fitbit exploded while he slept. Landers wrote on Facebook his smartwatch began “burning up” and “smoking” in the middle of the night, according to News.com.au. The man, who was based in Iowa at the time, shared pictures of his horrific injury. “I quickly realized my Fitbit was burning up, so I tried frantically to get it off,” Ethan wrote in the post. “With a few failed attempts, I jumped out of bed and turned the light on where my wife was able to unlatch the band on my Fitbit.”