An Iowa woman said her smartphone caught fire and exploded in her bedroom.
Patricia Dampier of Cedar Rapids shared her story with KCRG. She said her HTC phone started to smoke and then caught her bedroom on fire.
As manager of Digital Doc, Joe Fonner has seen his fair share of lithium batteries gone wrong.
"Most batteries you can tell before something is going to happen because they'll swell," he said.
Fonner has a couple tips when dealing with these batteries. First, make sure you know what you're buying.
"You can get batteries that look like the official thing but they're cheap sells," Fonner said.
Fonner says off-brand batteries don't always have the necessary materials.
"Basically if you look at the composition of the battery there's lithium strips in there and when they start to touch that's when they can combust."
"Make sure it's the exact battery for the device," Marion Fire Captain Shawn Fluharty said.
Local firefighters add another safety insight.
"Primarily where we see the fires is during charging," Fluharty said.
Firefighters suggest keeping electronics on a hard surface while charging.
Fonner adds using an off-brand charger can destroy a phone.