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‘Safer’ new Samsung cell caught fire: suit

One of Samsung’s highly touted and supposedly fireproof Galaxy Note 9 cellphones spontaneously combusted inside a Long Island woman’s purse, according to a lawsuit.

In what could be the first report of a Note 9 catching fire, real-estate agent Diane Chung’s legal claim recalls the South Korean company’s 2016 disaster with the Galaxy Note 7, which ignited so often that Samsung had to dump 2.5 million devices. The Note 9 (pictured), which retails for roughly $1,000, wasn’t supposed to have that problem, Samsung officials said ahead of its Aug. 24 release.

“The battery in the Galaxy Note 9 is safer than ever,” said CEO Koh Dong-jin, according to reports. “Users do not have to worry about the batteries anymore.”

Another Samsung exec, Kate Beaumont, director of product planning, said the company now had a multi-step “battery safety check” in place and the Note 9s would “absolutely not” catch fire.

But just after midnight on Sept. 3, Chung was in the elevator of a Bayside building when her brand new phone “became extremely hot,” according to court papers.

She stopped using the phone and put it in her bag. Suddenly, “she heard a whistling and screeching sound, and she noticed thick smoke” pouring from her purse, the legal documents claim.

Chung put the bag on the elevator floor and tried to empty it, burning her fingers as she grabbed the smoking Samsung, the suit says.

Trappedd alone in the lift and “extremelyly panicked,” Chung droppedopped the phone and starteded smashing el-elevator buttons,buttons, the thick smokeoke mak-making it hardd to see.

Reachingng the lobby, she kicked the sizzling phone out of the elevator.

The cell-cellphone didn’tdn’t stop burning until a good Samaritan grabbed it with a cloth and plunked it into a bucket of water, Chung claims in the Queens Supreme Court lawsuit. The fire left her unable to contact clients and ruined everythingthing in her bag, accorcording to Chung, who called the experience “traumatic.” SSamsung shoushould have known the phphone was “defective, fective,” charges ChungChung, who wants unspeunspecified damages and a rrestraining orderder barringbarri the sales of any GalaxGalaxy Note 9s. Samsung responded, “We have nonot received any reports of sisimilar incidents . . . andand wewe arare investigating the matter.’’