Overview
- The incident, which occurred Wednesday, involved a Canadian owner whose Galaxy S25 FE suffered a violent battery failure overnight while charging on a mattress and caused minor burns, heavy smoke and a fire‑department response.
- The phone was inside a thick leather wallet case that contained loose metal coins and was connected by the original Samsung cable to a third‑party 20W charger, according to the owner's Reddit account.
- Reporting and safety analysis describe the event as thermal runaway, a chain reaction in a lithium‑ion cell that can happen when heat cannot escape, and they say the case and mattress likely trapped heat and worsened the failure.
- The owner received a Samsung support ticket number but had not heard back at time of reporting, and Samsung has not publicly tied this or recent S24 and S25 Plus reports to any systemic manufacturing defect.
- While journalists stress these episodes are rare compared with tens of millions of Galaxy phones in use, experts and outlets say forensic analysis is needed and they advise charging on hard, non‑flammable surfaces and keeping metal away from charging devices.