A schoolboy suffered serious burns after a BlackBerry smartphone appeared to burst into flames in the middle of the night and set fire to his bed.
Kian McCreath, 11, fled from his bedroom screaming "my bed is on fire" after flames engulfed him while he slept last weekend.
His mother Sarah, 39, awoke to her son’s screams after the new BlackBerry device, bought as a gift for his brother, Mason, malfunctioned and spontaneously combusted.
The youngster was rushed to University Hospital Coventry with serious burns to his legs and feet after plastic stuck to his skin. He has been left permanently scarred.
The year 7 pupil said tonight: "It was really scary. I woke up with my legs in a fire at the bottom of my bed. I'm also having problems sleeping at night."
The family is now demanding the popular BlackBerry Curve 9320 mobile is recalled from shops in time for Christmas.
Tonight, local trading standards officials were investigating the incident, which occurred just after 2.30am last Sunday at the family’s home in Coventry, West Mids.
Research in Motion, the manufacturers behind BlackBerry, also confirmed that an internal investigation had been launched as “a priority”.
Kian’s father, Pete, a 39 year-old carpenter, bought the £13 a month mobile phone for his eldest son as a 13th birthday present, from a Vodafone shop in Birmingham.
No problems were reported for about a week. Mrs McCreath had placed the charging phone in the boy’s bedroom because it is used as an alarm just a few hours before it blew up.
She said that after going to sleep, she heard a loud “pop” sound, before he son started “screaming at the top of his voice, shouting ‘my bed's on fire’”.
They dashed into his room, to find the bottom of his duvet and mattress alight as Mrs McCreath frantically smothered the fire using a quilt.
Kian was immediately put in the bath to cool the burns before being rushed to hospital. Mrs McCreath, an administrative assistant, said her son has been left traumatised by the incident.
She said: “It was just horrific. He was in a lot of pain as his feet had pretty much been engulfed in flames.
"I ran into the room and started battering the flames with his brother's quilt to put them out.
"The bed was charred and the phone itself was just a blackened shell. It could have easily been much worse if he hadn't have woken up.”
She added: "If I had left the phone on the landing, the whole house could have gone up. You just don't expect this to happen with a mobile phone.
"You wouldn't think something so small could do so much damage – my son could quite easily have died. It sends a shudder down my spine to think what could have happened. “
"He hasn't been able to use his own mobile phone since and is having trouble sleeping. He is going to be scarred for life as well.”
She warned that thousands of children will be receiving the phones as Christmas gifts, so “parents need to be aware of the dangers before somebody dies”.
Mr McCreath added: "If Sarah hadn't acted so quickly that room could have gone up in flames within minutes.
"It was just lucky she got there so quickly. I'm shaking just talking about it.
"The phone... needs to be tested. A lot of kids are raving about that Blackberry phone right now. My main concern is for the safety of other kids.”
A spokesman for Birmingham City Council's trading standards office said: "We have received a complaint and we are going to investigate the matter."
The family have since contacted Trading Standards, who have urged them to keep the mobile as evidence, while McCreath has held a video conference with RIM officials over his concerns.
A spokesman from Research in Motion said: "We take claims of this nature very seriously and are investigating this matter as a priority." She declined to comment further.
Blackberry devices were the biggest selling smartphones in Britain last year.
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