A child from Farmington Hills, Michigan received second degree burns to his leg when the PlayStation Portable he was carrying in his trouser pocket suddenly caught fire. Harold Clay, 12, was at a band class at the time.

Mother Sheila Clay said “"He said it wasn't a gradual heat. It really started heating up.” Police said the fire burned its way through his clothing.

Fortunately, serious injury was prevented by Clay’s quick reactions – dropping to the deck and rolling about. He was treated at a local hospital for his burns and was back at school later that day.

Clay’s father has said that the console was not switched on at the time – although we can’t be certain of that. What we do know is that it was loaded up with a copy of Burnout. Thank god it wasn’t Breath of Fire.

Over the last couple of years there have been various incidents of laptop batteries spontaneously catching fire, but this is first case of it happening to a PSP. Sony doesn’t exactly have an impeccable record when it comes to batteries and, err, fires so this isn’t an encouraging sign. Hopefully it’s a one off, but I am equally hopefully that Sony will be giving this incident serious investigation to prevent a repeat episode.

As someone who often carries a PSP around in my trouser pocket, I am particularly anxious not to have my genitals ignited by a faulty battery. And like the earlier incidents with the laptop batteries, it’s all well and good when these freak incidents happen in reasonably open spaces – but imagine the shit storm that would go down if it ever happened on a plane. That would certainly be one-way ticket to airlines banning consoles and, frankly, air travel is arduous enough without further restrictions on what you can take on board.

Source
Game | Life

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