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Your phone can suddenly become a fire risk. Here’s what to do. Advertisement

On Wednesday afternoon, I noticed that my phone was no longer sitting flush in its case.

It took me a few minutes to realise that this was a big, honking sign of danger.

The battery in my smartphone had probably started to swell - a possibility with any rechargeable electronic device. In the tight confines of my phone’s innards, the swelling battery was pushing the screen away from the body of the phone. That’s why the case no longer fit.

Our devices are powered with chemical-packed batteries that can die or fail in potentially catastrophic ways.

Swelling batteries in electronics can, in rare cases, spark a fire or explosion. Billions of products with rechargeabl

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