it was just begging for that headline, sorry…

Source: USA Today

Urban myth alert: ‘Cellphone fire’ story appears to be bogus

Fire officials in Vallejo, Calif., now say a cellphone in a man’s pants pocket did not cause the fire that left him with serious burns over half his body, both the Vallejo Times-Herald and The San Francisco Chronicle report.

As we reported Tuesday, Vallejo fire department spokesman Bill Tweedy had been saying that 59-year-old Luis Picaso most likely had been burned because a cellphone in his pocket had somehow short-circuited. Flames then consumed both the nylon/polyester clothes he was wearing and the plastic lawn chair in which he was seated.

But now, the newspapers report, electrical engineers from Nokia (which answers the question about what brand of phone was involved) have convinced investigators that the phone wasn’t the source of the flames. According to the Times-Herald, the phone still works — indicating it did not short-circuit. That has led Tweedy to issue a statement saying that “the point of origin is still the right front pocket of the victim’s pants, but the ignition source is of an unknown flame source.”

The latest theory: The problem may have been “improper discarding of smoking materials, matches or a lighter,” the Times-Herald says.