A woman was shocked when her Primark bag went up in flames after it had been left in the sun. Eva Bacchoo, 21, was on holiday in Malia, Crete, when the bag set on fire with her AirPods inside while she was sunbathing.
A TikTok shows the singed edges of the stylish beach bag and suggests the fire may have started as a result of the metal button on the bag getting too hot. Eve's followers gave her their own take on the situation, with some suggesting it had been started by a plastic bottle of water.
The holidaymaker said: “I felt shocked at first but, ultimately, I found it funny how it had set itself on fire. I panicked at first with the AirPods but they were safe.”
The content creator, who posts travel-themed content on TikTok under the handle @evabacchoo, arrived in Crete on June 21. She had been on holiday for a few days and was sunbathing by the pool on June 24 when the incident occurred.
She only realised the bag was alight after she reached for the bottle of water she’d stashed in there shortly beforehand. Luckily, she was able to douse the flames before the rest of the bag went up.
However she forgot her AirPods were in the bag, gasping and grabbing them out of the pocket inside the bag when she realised. “We’re in Malia in Crete for a week-long festival thing and on Friday we were sunbathing by the pool,” said Eva.
“I got the bag in Primark in April – I can’t remember exactly how much it cost, somewhere between £12 and £14. I’d not long put a bottle of water in the bag and then didn’t put the bag in the shade – I turned around as I was thirsty and saw the bag was on fire.
“It was smouldering with a few little flames – I thought it was the metal initially but a lot of comments on the video say water bottles in the sun can reflect like a magnifying glass and cause a fire. It was obviously something to do with the sunlight on the metal button or the bottle – I don’t actually think it was because the button got too hot in the sun.”
A spokesperson for Primark said: “Every Primark product range is tested independently to ensure the relevant safety and quality standards are met. We were surprised to hear of this complaint and we’ve had no other reported issues, but if the customer returns the bag to us then we will be happy to investigate this further to understand what might have happened.”
