Phone’s Fault in Fire Argued: Officials, Maker Deny Cellular Short Circuit Led to Man’s Burns.

By M.S. Enkoji, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Jan. 19–Speculation about what caused a Vallejo man’s pants pocket — where he kept his cell phone — to burst into flames continued Thursday as he recovered from his burns at UC Davis Medical Center.

Luis Picaso, 59, was in stable condition with second- and third-degree burns over half his body, his attorney said Thursday.

Since the fire Sunday night in Picaso’s downtown Vallejo apartment, investigators had believed the battery in his Nokia 2125i cell phone had short-circuited and burned.

But a Vallejo Fire Department investigator said Thursday that Nokia engineers tested the phone, and he said he was satisfied enough to conclude the phone was not the cause.

“The cause is unknown,” said Bill Tweedy, the investigator.

Picaso’s attorney argued differently.

“It’s very clear to us that it was a battery that overheated and turned Mr. Picaso into a human flame,” said Raymond Boucher, a Beverly Hills attorney who specializes in consumer issues.

Boucher said he has found at least 100 incidents of fires or explosions involving short-circuited cell phone batteries.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is investigating the incident, said Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the federal regulatory agency.

The commission has tracked at least 125 cell phone battery fires, mostly between 2002 to 2004, after which public awareness and improved batteries tended to decrease the incidents, he said.

Tweedy, the Vallejo investigator, said the fire undoubtedly started in Picaso’s pants pocket where he kept the phone, but he had no immediate explanation for the cause. The fire, intense enough to set off fire sprinklers in Picaso’s apartment, could have incinerated the source of the flame, he said.

At a Thursday news conference in Sacramento, Boucher discussed Picaso’s condition and gave Picaso’s younger brother an opportunity to voice his anguish.

Miguel Picaso said his brother was not a smoker and wouldn’t have been carrying matches.

Luis Picaso, who lives alone, has undergone several surgeries.

His condition is “very, very bad,” the brother said as he reached for tissues.

A Nokia representative said Thursday that the company has concluded the phone was not the cause of the fire.

If the battery had short-circuited, it’s unlikely the phone would continue to function, which it did, said Keith Nowak, a spokesman for the Finland-based phone manufacturer.

“That just wouldn’t happen,” he said.

“We’ve never had these kinds of issues with that model. We’ve never found a Nokia device that has started a fire or caused an explosion,” Nowak said.

Picaso’s attorney countered Nokia’s conclusion and questioned the validity of the company’s evaluation of its own product.

“You don’t go hiring an arsonist to investigate a fire,” Boucher said.

“Clearly, we need to investigate the phone.”

The phone, which is still in the hands of investigators, will eventually be returned to its owner, Tweedy said.

The fire department might not ever determine what caused the fire, he said.

After the fire started, Picaso, who had fallen asleep, crawled to his bathroom as the sprinkler system kept the blaze at bay, Tweedy said.

He was burned on his upper body, back, right arm and right leg.

Tweedy said Picaso was unable to give a consistent story about what happened, eventually saying he couldn’t remember.

Malfunctions with ion lithium batteries — the rechargeable kind used in cell phones, laptops computers, digital cameras and portable DVD players — have prompted voluntary recalls of 10 million laptop batteries worldwide, said Wolfson from the federal safety commission.

The commission continues to press the industry for the safest options, he said, but consumer expectations of electronic gadgets is driving the need for high performance: “There’s a lot of power in a very small package.”

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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