Harrowing surveillance video captures iPhone catching fire

Nobody likes to deal with a broken phone. But in some cases, a damaged phone can lead to something much more serious than a simple inconvenience.

That's apparently what happened at a phone repair shop in Las Vegas, Nevada, where an iPhone reportedly exploded and caught fire. The entire incident was captured on surveillance video, which was first reported by ABC affiliate KTNV.

The video shows a worker sitting at a desk when, suddenly, an object on his desk explodes and catches fire. The exact source of the explosion is difficult to make out in the video, but KTNV reports that it was an iPhone 6S.

It's not the first time there have been reports of an iPhone exploding and catching fire.

As we've noted before, the fact is no phone is explosion-proof. Lithium ion batteries are prone to combust if they're damaged or defective. And while we don't have many details about this particular phone, we know it was in the midst of a repair. So it's entirely possible the battery was damaged in some way before or during the repair process. (ABC didn't identify the store where the incident happened, so we can't independently verify the video.)

Another possible culprit, though, could be heat damage. Prolonged exposure to high temperatures (like those common in the Las Vegas area), can cause longterm damage to your phone's battery according to Apple.

Either way, the incident serves as a good reminder of what can happen if you don't take proper care of your phone.