Marek Kruger was fast asleep in his bed when his phone’s battery ignited and sparked a fire, leaving him with burns of more than 60 per cent on his body.
The 53-year-old, from Poland, had been charging his phone under his bed covers when the killer fire was started at his Reading flat. His son, Przemyslaw, had been upstairs at a friend’s flat in the same building when they first smelled burning plastic at around 12.45am. He rushed downstairs to find fire crews already on scene after neighbours raised the alarm.
Paramedics took over minutes later but Marek was pronounced dead at the scene at 1.14am on August 9, 2015. Marek had been unable to walk after suffering from a brain tumour and was sleeping in a specialist hospital bed installed in his flat.
An inquest heard that he died of injuries sustained by the ‘slow and smouldering’ fire which engulfed him and some of his bed.
His wife, Iryna, said that his phone was a lifeline for the bed-bound father-of-two.
Iryna said: ‘He used to put the phone and wallet just under the pillow because he wanted to have his phone next to him.
‘He felt unsafe sometimes when the girls [his carers] had not been around and I was at work.’
Jonathan Fuguet, a consultant scientific adviser, told the coroner that the phone had burst into flames because it had been covered while on charge.
‘The heat generated by the phone while charging could not dissipate because of the insulation – almost like putting it into a fire but much, much slower.’
No faults were found in either the phone or the charger and Mr Fuguet pointed to Apple’s advice that devices be kept below 35°C and are not covered while charging.
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