Narrative:

During the climb at approximately FL320 we received a cabin call from the flight attendants that there was smoke in the cabin. We immediately [advised] center and were given direct routing to ZZZ which was 66 miles ahead after turning back to the east. Flight attendants called back shortly to report that a passenger's cell phone was on fire. Shortly after that another call was made to the flight deck reporting that the fire was extinguished by placing it in the fwd lav sink and running water over it continuously. Another call was made subsequent to that advising us that the smoke had dissipated in the cabin. We continued on to ZZZ and landed without any further incident. After landing I stopped the aircraft on the taxiway and called the flight attendants to make sure everything was still under control. It was; and no evacuation was warranted and we proceeded the gate and was met by ZZZ fire department who quickly boarded the aircraft and removed the faulty cell phone and its associated defective charger which was now in a galley ice drawer filled with ice and water and completely extinguished. 3 passengers suffered minor hand burns while handling the overheated phone to get it to the fwd lav sink. After talking with several of the flight attendants afterward; I don't believe the phone was ever actually on fire; but overheating [to] the extent that it was burning the plastic casing and if it had not been immersed in water and ice may have eventually caught fire.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A320 flight crew reported a cell phone fire in the cabin led to a diversion and landing.

Narrative: During the climb at approximately FL320 we received a cabin call from the flight attendants that there was smoke in the cabin. We immediately [advised] center and were given direct routing to ZZZ which was 66 miles ahead after turning back to the east. Flight attendants called back shortly to report that a passenger's cell phone was on fire. Shortly after that another call was made to the flight deck reporting that the fire was extinguished by placing it in the FWD lav sink and running water over it continuously. Another call was made subsequent to that advising us that the smoke had dissipated in the cabin. We continued on to ZZZ and landed without any further incident. After landing I stopped the aircraft on the taxiway and called the flight attendants to make sure everything was still under control. It was; and NO evacuation was warranted and we proceeded the gate and was met by ZZZ fire department who quickly boarded the Aircraft and removed the faulty cell phone and its associated defective charger which was now in a galley ice drawer filled with ice and water and completely extinguished. 3 passengers suffered minor hand burns while handling the overheated phone to get it to the FWD lav sink. After talking with several of the flight attendants afterward; I don't believe the phone was ever actually on fire; but overheating [to] the extent that it was burning the plastic casing and if it had not been immersed in water and ice may have eventually caught fire.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.