Here’s a translation of the body of the article, from the Dutch, courtesy of Google Translate:
An iPad has exploded in the Amsterdam Apple store. Three employees were affected by their airways. The store has been evacuated.
Cause is probably a leaking battery. The fire brigade told the local broadcaster AT5.
Employees of the store have immediately placed the iPad in a container with sand. The employees who suffered from the airways were checked by the ambulance staff. The Apple Store, which is located at Leidseplein, has been aired by the fire department.
As far as I can tell, this story is the source of all the other coverage I’ve encountered. As always, if possible, I like to go to the source and read these sorts of things for myself.
As to the word explodes in the title and story, that’s the translation direct from Google. Was there an actual explosion? Was this more of a sizzle and pop than a boom or bang? Hard to say. Grain of salt.
None of the stories I’ve read indicate whether it was an iPad on display (which would be legitimately worrying) or one that someone had brought in for repair, which would be a bit more understandable.
It wasn’t a new iPad and it didn’t explode. Just a leaking battery, genius bar personnel acted quickly and professionally. Store was evacuated as a precaution.
Only three injuries and no talk of an actual fire. So no it probably didn’t ‘explode’ but was leaking fumes. That’s enough to make someone standing right by it sick and to invoke an incident report etc. and they would clear the store to avoid any customers getting sick and trying to sue.
Sand is used even for just a leaking battery to staunch anything from catching fire so it’s not evidence of anything stronger happening
Heck do we know that it still had an original battery in it. A possible cause for the situation could have been a 3rd party battery replacement. Screw gets dropped into the ipad during the process and the tech doesn’t see that he/she set the new battery right on top to be poked. And they often don’t get the iPads perfectly resealed so that would be an opening for fumes to leak out