Turkish repairman warms up tablet with blow dryer, leads to explosion

A Turkish repairman created an explosion while warming up a tablet with a blow dryer to remove its battery on Jan. 18. The worker was not hurt in the incident, he said, adding that he thinks overheating caused the blast.

Duvar English

A tablet exploded in a subindustry technology repair shop in western Turkey as the person repairing the device heated it up with a blow dryer to remove the battery on Jan. 18.

"I saw that the battery of the tablet stuck to the tablet too much. I was trying to separate the battery from the tablet by giving it heat when suddenly, there was an explosion," said repairman Enes Şahin.

The explosion was caused by overheating, Şahin said, adding that he was not hurt and only had some of his clothes singed.

Unlicensed technology repair shops are extremely common in Turkey, as almost all technology is imported, and licensed repairs charge based on foreign currencies, which usually equates to astronomical amounts in Turkish liras.