Warehouse Fire Blamed on Overheating Mobile Phone Battery

The owners of a warehouse which recently had a serious fire has decided to sue a phone network and handset manufacturer after they decided that an overheating cellphone battery was the cause of the blaze.

Anderson Management, which manages the property in Wichita says that the fire last January caused some US$640,000 in damage to the warehouse and US$535,000 in damage to the property of Anderson's tenants, Javier and Monica Sacco, who used the building to store processed foods for distribution.

In the lawsuit, filed with the 18th Judicial District Court, Sedgwick County in Kansas - Anderson Management says that a cellphone was left connected to the phone charger overnight by the tenants, and it was this which overheated and caused the fire to start.

The lawsuit names the mobile network, Sprint, along with Sanyo and Kyocera as well as the tenants, the Saccos who are alleged to have left the phone on charge.

The local Fire Department hasn't been able to confirm that the phone battery caused the fire - but had noted that one of the batteries was missing which lead them to conclude that the missing battery might have been responsible.

The two phones have been identified as the discontinued Sanyo 8200 models.

Posted to the site on 9th January 2009