The Samsung Galaxy Note 7 now has competition in the iPhone 7 in a category that neither wants any part of. Less than two months after a Galaxy Note 7 caught fire and burned down a Jeep Grand Cherokee with it, a similar fate befell an iPhone 7 when it too reportedly exploded while sitting under a pile of clothes in the car of a surfer who was giving surf lessons at that time.

According to Yahoo News Australia, Mat Jones was shocked when he returned to his car, which at that point in time, was already filling up with smoke. It wasn’t mentioned how the situation was contained, but in the aftermath of the terrifying ordeal, Jones discovered the burned down remains of the iPhone 7 and a pair of pants that was still on fire at that time.

The young surfer claims that he had owned the iPhone 7 for barely a week and hadn’t dropped it or used a foreign charger since buying it. Now he has no phone and no car, a double whammy to the gut if there ever was one.

For its part, Apple has since caught wind of the incident and is currently investigating the cause of the fire. An official statement has yet to come out, but given the magnitude and the media coverage it has received, I expect the tech giant to come up with an explanation sooner than later. Hopefully, Jones gets a new iPhone 7 and car in the process.

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This is a big issue for Apple

Not that the company would admit it, but I’m sure when all these reports about exploding Galaxy Note 7’s made headlines, people within Apple we’re not disappointed to see them happen time and again. Now it appears that it’s got a similar problem on its hands and it’s something that needs to be addressed as soon as possible.

The best possible scenario for Apple is that only a few phones are affected. Then again, these are batteries we’re talking about and their highly combustible if they’re defective. Even it’s a small number, Apple needs to be absolutely sure that all of its iPhone 7s are working properly. If not, it could lead to some pretty bad situations that can turn ugly really quickly.

Remember the situation that happened with the Galaxy Note 7 that exploded and burned down the Jeep Grand Cherokee with it? The owner said at that time that he brought out his daughter and his dog out of the SUV moments before the fire started. If he didn’t do that, well, you imagine what could’ve happened. Apple needs to make sure that it avoids an incident like and it’s lucky that Jones, if his story is accurate, was out of his car when the iPhone 7 caught fire.