A 53-year-old man died in a house fire caused by the overheating of an iPhone 5 battery which was plugged in to charge overnight.
An inquest has heard that Mark Kruger was bed bound due to a brain tumour at the time of the fire.
The court was told that Kruger often kept his mobile phone by his side and charged it using an extension cable to make it more accessible.
Kruger’s wife, Iryna, had a statement read to the court on her behalf. It explained how her husband, who had been taking paracetamol and ibuprofen, had been in an accident and was reliant on carers and on his electric bed.
“He had a brain tumour and lost a lot of weight and was in huge pain,” the statement said.
A pathology report revealed that Kruger had suffered 64% burns including first degree burns to his face and upper chest. Soot was found in his larynx and trachea.
An investigation into the fire found that the iPhone battery had caused the fire because the device was on the bed covers and the heat was unable to circulate.
Ravi Sidhu, the assistant coroner said that the main cause of death was smoke inhalation.
“He would not have known much about what was going on around him.
“He had been overcome by the effects of smoke from a fire caused by the battery of the phone which had been covered by bed coverings,” Sidhu concluded.
The fire took place at his home in Reading in the UK, last August.
