Fall asleep in bed with your smartphone and it could well be turned into a smoldering crisp by the time you wake up. 13-year-old Ariel Tolfree from Texas learned this the hard way when her Samsung Galaxy S4 overheated and melted under her pillow while she slept.

Tolfree says her beloved cellphone slipped under her pillow while she slept. She was awoken during the night by a smoky smell but thought little of it and went back to sleep. When she next woke up, however, her Galaxy S4 was little more than smoldering plastic.

Tolfree’s father believes the handset overheated causing the battery to swell and catch fire. It burned through Tolfree’s pillow and sheets and left her handset unrecognizable. “You can’t even really tell that it was even a phone,” he told Fox 4 News. “You can see how thick that battery is now… that battery swelled.”

Fortunately, no one was hurt and Samsung has agreed to replace Tolfree’s sheets and her phone. The South Korean company insists, however, that its products are perfectly safe and it is blaming the problem on an unofficial replacement battery that had been installed in the phone.

Samsung also reminds users not to cover their devices with anything that prevents airflow and could cause them to overheat.

Tolfree isn’t the first person to wake up to a smoldering smartphone, and she certainly won’t be the last. Prevent your device from overheating by ensuring it isn’t in bed with you when you sleep and that it gets plenty of air — particularly while charging, which can cause the battery to become hot.

• SourceFox 4 News
• ViaCNET